The  Training  of  the  Protestant  Ministry 

in  the    United    States   of  America, 

Before   the    Establishment    of 

Theological  Seminaries 


By 

William  Orpheus  Shewmaker 


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REPRINTED  FROM  "XHE  PAPERS  OF  THE  AMERICAN  SOCIETY  OF  CHURCH  HISTORY," 
SECOND  SERIES,  VOL.  VI. 


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-'_■'    s 
The  Training  of  the  Protestant  Ministry  in  the  United 

States  of  America,  before  the  EstabUshment 

of  Theological  Seminaries 

By 

v/ 
William  Orpheus  Shewmaker 


71 


sec 


Digitized  by  the  Internet  Archive 

in  2011  with  funding  from 

Princeton  Theological  Seminary  Library 


http://www.archive.org/details/trainingofprotesOOshew 


PREFATORY  NOTE 

THE  following  paper,  read  by  title  at  the  meeting  of  the 
American  Society  of  Church  History  held  in  New  York 
City  on  the  27th  of  December,  191 5,  has  been  revised,  and 
is  now  published  by  direction  of  the  Editorial  Committee. 

The  only  attempt  to  survey  the  whole  subject  which  the 
writer  has  found  is  the  brief  sketch  by  Dr.  Samuel  Simpson, 
"Early  Ministerial  Training  in  America"  (in  Papers  of 
the  American  Society  of  Church  History,  Second  Series,  vol. 
ii,  19 10,  pp.  1 15-129),  which  has  been  very  useful  as  an  in- 
troduction. Special  sections  of  the  subject  have  also  been 
presented  recently  by  Dr.  Frederick  G.  Gotwald,  Early 
American  Lutheran  Theological  Education,  1^4^-1845  (re- 
printed from  The  Lutheran  Quarterly,  January,  1916),  and 
by  Professor  Jesse  Johnson,  "Early  Theological  Education 
West  of  the  Alleghanies"  (in  Papers  of  the  American  Society 
of  Church  History,  Second  Series,  vol.  v,  1917,  pp.  1 19-130). 

The  present  treatise  was  first  written  in  1914,  and  pre- 
sented in  May  of  that  year  to  the  Faculty  of  the  Hartford 
Theological  Seminary  in  Hartford,  Connecticut,  in  partial 
fulfillment  of  the  requirements  for  the  degree  of  Doctor  of 
Philosophy.  The  author  acknowledges  his  obligation  to 
Professor  Curtis  M.  Geer  and  to  Professor  Edwin  Knox 
Mitchell,  of  the  Faculty  of  the  Hartford  Seminary,  for  their 
encouragement  and  guidance  in  its  preparation.  He  also 
appreciates  the  help  of  Professor  William  Walker  Rockrvell, 
of  the  Union  Theological  Seminary  in  the  City  of  New  York, 
who  revised  certain  sections  of  it  and  added  much  of  the 
material  on  Dutch  education,  and  also  some  of  the  longer 

73 


74  Prefatory  Note 


notes.     For  the  facts  alleged  and  the  conclusions  announced, 
the  writer,  however,  is  alone  responsible. 

There  remains  the  pleasant  duty  of  thanking  for  many 
courtesies  the  libraries  of  the  following  institutions:  the 
Hartford  Theological  Seminary,  Hartford,  Connecticut ; 
the  University  of  Chicago ;  the  Southern  Baptist  Theological 
Seminary,  Louisville,  Kentucky;  the  Western  Theological 
Seminary,  Chicago ;  the  McCormick  Theological  Seminary, 
Chicago;  and  the  Union  Theological  Seminary,  New  York. 


THE  TRAINING  OF  THE  PROTESTANT  MINISTRY 
IN  THE  UNITED  STATES  OF  AMERICA,  BE- 
FORE THE  ESTABLISHMENT  OF  THEOLOGICAL 
SEMINARIES 

By  William  Orpheus  Shewmaker 
introduction:  the  period  and  its  divisions 

THE  Protestant  ministry  in  the  United  States  extends 
back  over  three  hundred  years;  the  present  study 
covers  the  first  two  hundred.  For  the  sake  of  simpHcity  the 
seventeenth  and  the  eighteenth  centuries  are  treated  suc- 
cessively. A  stricter  division  might  terminate  the  first 
part  of  the  period  with  the  founding  of  the  College  of  William 
and  Mary  in  1693,  or  with  the  establishment  of  Yale  College 
in  1701 ;  and  might  end  the  second  part  either  with  the 
opening  of  the  first  theological  seminary,  or  with  the  early 
nineteenth  century,  when  the  practice  of  attending  the 
seminaries  had  become  general.  These  dates,  however, 
fall  so  close  to  1700  and  to  1800  that  it  will  suffice  to  treat 
the  seventeenth  and  eighteenth  centuries  successively. 


FROM    THE    FOUNDING    OF  THE    FIRST    SETTLEMENT   TO   THE 
CLOSE  OF  THE  SEVENTEENTH  CENTURY 

I.    The  Anglican  Ministry  in  Virginia 

The  first  permanent  Protestant  ministry  in  America  was 
that  of  the  first  permanent  English  colony  in  the  country, 

75 


76        Training  of  the  Protestant  Ministry 


and  was  contemporaneous  with  the  founding  of  that  colony. 
For  the  expedition  of  1607  brought,  as  its  minister,  the 
Reverend  Robert  Hunt,  who  served  as  the  first  pastor,  at 
Jamestown,  Virginia.  His  successors  there,  and  those  who 
became  pastors  elsewhere  in  the  colony,  were  all,  like  him, 
clergymen  of  the  Church  of  England.  Most  of  them  had 
already  served  the  Church  in  their  native  country;  some  of 
them  were  well  advanced  in  years. 

(a)  Its  Numbers 

Throughout  the  seventeenth  century  the  number  of  the 
Virginia  clergy  appears  never  to  have  been  large.  But  the 
close  study  of  the  careers  of  the  individual  clergymen  which 
might  be  inferred  as  possible  because  of  this  fact  does  not 
appear  to  have  been  made.  It  has  been  so  far  found  impos- 
sible because  of  the  scantiness  of  the  records  that  have  sur- 
vived concerning  them.'  The  facts  as  to  certain  of  them 
have,  however,  been  sufficiently  well  established,  especially 
by  the  researches  of  certain  scholars  in  recent  years. 

The  object  of  this  inquiry  is  their  academic  training, 
using  the  term  to  include  any  post-collegiate  training  for  the 
work  of  the  ministry.  The  fact  of  their  ordination  as 
Anglican  clergymen  is  in  favor  of  the  presumption  that  they 
all  had  university  training.  But  it  is  not  by  itself  proof.  ^ 
Evidence  of  it  must  be  sought  elsewhere.  The  natural 
place  to  seek  this  is  the  official  records  of  the  universities  of 
England.     Where  these  are  complete  and  clear,   as  pub- 

'  "The  early  ecclesiastical  history  of  the  colony  is  probably  more  incom- 
plete than  the  secular.  ...  In  the  reports  the  ministers  are  not  designated  by 
their  title,  'Reverend'  or  'Rev.,'  and  therefore  I  do  not  know  how  many  were 
living  in  1625;  .  .  .  ."  (Alexander  Brown,  The  First  Repttblicin  America,  pp. 
630-631.)  In  1675  Bishop  Compton  reported  "scarce  four  Ministers  of  the 
Church  of  England  in  all  the  vast  tract  of  America."  Digest  of  the  Records 
of  the  Society  for  Propagating  the  Gospel  in  Foreign  Parts,  1 701- 1892  (Second 
Edition). 

^  See  below,  p.  99. 


Training  of  the  Protestant  Ministry         77 


lished,  they  have  been  taken  as  sufficient;  where  there  is 
question,  the  decision  of  certain  authorities  has  been 
accepted. 

{b)  Evidence  of  Its  Training 

Rev.  Robert  Hunt  is,  in  the  opinion  of  Dr.  Lyon  G.  Tyler, 
probably  the  one  of  that  name  who  was  Master  of  Arts  of 
one  of  the  universities  in  England.'  It  is  known  that  he 
brought  a  library  with  him.  His  immediate  successor  (1610) 
was  Richard  Buck,  a  graduate  of  Oxford.^  Alexander 
Whitaker,  who  came  in  161 1,  was  a  Master  of  Arts  of  Cam- 
bridge^; of  which  university  was  also  Mr.  Glover,  whose 
arrival  was  in  this  period.-*  Rev.  Hawte  Wyatt  (1621)  was 
a  Master  of  Arts  of  Oxford.  ^  Of  Francis  Bolton  and  Robert 
Staples,  who  came  about  the  same  time,  it  is  safe  to  infer 
that  they  were  men  of  education;  for  of  the  former,  it  is 
said  that  he  was  highly  recommended  to  the  London  Com- 
pany "for  piety  and  learning";  and  of  the  other,  that  the 
Company  was  urged  "by  twenty  conspicuous  divines  to 
secure  his  services.  "  ^ 

Among  those  arriving  somewhat  later  were  Philip  Mal- 
lory,  M.A.,  Thomas  Hampton,  B.A.,  of  Oxford;  Justinian 
Aylmer,  probably  of  the  same;  Morgan  Godwin,  B.A.,  of 
Oxford;  Rowland  Jones,  and  John  Clayton,  of  Oxford,  and 
James  Blair,  M.A.,  of  Edinburgh.  Later  still,  at  and  about 
the  end  of  the  century,  there  appear  Bartholomew  Yates, 
Peter    Kippax,   Cope  Doyley,  Emmanuel  Jones,   St.  John 

'  Lyon  G.  Tyler,  The  Cradle  of  the  Republic,  p.  135;  see  also  C.  H.  Cooper 
and  T.  Cooper,  AthencB  Cantabrigienses,  ii,  p.  493,  and  Alumni  Oxonienses, 
vol.  ii,  p.  772.  '  Ibid. 

3  P.  A.  Bruce,  Institutional  History  of  Virginia  in  the  Seventeenth  Century, 
vol.  i,  p.  196.  ■<  Tyler,  loc.  cit.  s  Alumni  Oxonienses,  s.  v. 

*  Bruce,  op.  cit.,  p.  199.  The  records  of  the  Virginia  Company  of  London 
call  him  simply  Mr.  Bolton.  "He  may  have  been  the  Robert  Bolton,  who 
in  1609,  took  the  degree  of  A.B.  at  Oxford"  (E.  D.  Neill,  Notes  on  the 
Virginia  Colonial  Clergy.     Philadelphia,  1877,  p.  8). 


78         Training  of  the  Protestant  Ministry 


Shropshire,  all  Bachelors  of  Arts  of  Oxford,'  and  James 
Clark,  ^  who,  though  his  education  does  not  appear  to  be 
definitely  known  yet  is  described  as  "distinguished  for 
culture,  "  which  seems  to  justify  the  inference  of  a  university 
training.  In  1619,  when  there  were  just  five  pastors  known 
to  have  been  then  in  Virginia,  including  two  who  acted 
as  pastors  but  who  had  not  been  ordained,  one  of  these 
latter  was  Samuel  Maycock,  of  Cambridge.  ^ 

(c)  Attainments  and  Abilities 

The  attainments  and  abilities  of  some  of  these,  and  of 
others  whose  training  is  not  so  well  known,  are  well  estab- 
lished. Glover  was  an  approved  minister  in  England  before 
he  came  to  America.  Hawte  Wyatt,  upon  his  return  to  Eng- 
land, was  appointed  to  a  living.  Thomas  Harrison,  first  a 
minister  in  the  colony  in  1640,  became  a  Puritan,  returned  to 
England,  and  was  chaplain  to  Henry  Cromwell  in  Ireland. 
Philip  Mallory  was  son-in-law  to  Robert  Batte,  Vice- 
master  of  Oxford,  and  is  judged  to  have  been  the  virtual 
head  of  the  Church  in  the  colony  at  this  early  time  (1656), 
having  been  appointed  jointly  with  Roger  Green  to  examine 
into  the  competency  of  all  the  ministers  then  in  Virginia. 
The  standing  of  Green  is  also  indicated  by  this  appointment. 
He  was  the  author  of  the  pamphlet,  Virginia's  Cure,  or  an 
advisive  concerning  Virginia,  discovering  the  true  ground  of 
the  Church's  unhappiness,  1661.'' 

Rowland  Jones  is  called  in  his  epitaph  "pastor  primus  et 
dilectissimus."  John  Clayton  was  a  member  of  the  Royal 
Society,  and  after  his  return  to  England  wrote  letters  con- 
cerning some  of  the  natural  features  of  Virginia,  which  were 
published  in  the  Transactiofis  of  the  Society,  ^  while  James 

■  For  the  Oxford  graduates,  see  Alumni  Oxonienses. 

'  Bruce,  op.  cit.,  p.  203. 

3  Ibid.  4  Tyler,  op.  cit.,  pp.  137-141. 

5  Ibid.,  p.  143;  Bruce,  op.  cit.,  p.  201. 


Training  of  the  Protestant  Ministry        79 


Blair,  the  Commissary  of  the  Bishop  of  London,  was  the 
founder  and  first  president  of  William  and  Mary  College. 
His  attainments,  abilities,  and  influence  are  too  generally 
known  to  require  further  emphasis. ' 

By  this  time  the  Episcopal  Church  had  begun  to  develop 
in  Maryland.  A  few  years  after  Blair's  appointment  in 
Virginia,  Thomas  Bray  was  appointed  to  a  corresponding 
position  in  Maryland.  His  work  for  the  advancement  of 
learning  among  the  clergy  of  that  colony  is  well  known. 
He  spent  the  first  four  years  of  his  office  in  England  making 
energetic  efforts  to  secure  a  fit  body  of  recruits  for  the 
ministry  in  Maryland,  and  the  establishment  of  parochial 
libraries  for  their  use.  He  succeeded  in  bringing  the  num- 
ber of  ministers  in  the  colony  up  to  sixteen,  and  in  collecting 
thirty-nine  libraries.^ 


{d)  Places  of  Training 

It  will  be  observed  that  those  of  the  Anglican  ministry  in 
America  in  the  regions  where  it  was  strongest  at  this  period, 
whose  training  is  positively  known,  were,  with  the  exception 
of  James  Blair,  trained  either  at  Oxford  or  at  Cambridge. 
It  is  safe  to  infer  that  as  many  of  the  others  as  had  university 
training  had  received  it  at  one  or  the  other  of  these  in- 
stitutions. ^ 


■  D.  E.  Motley,  Life  of  Commissary  James  Blair,  1901. 

^American  Church  History  Series,  vol.  i,  p.  65;  Thomas  Bray,  Bibliotheca 
Parochialis,  the  whole  book. 

3  "Some  had  been  educated  in  Scotland,  but  a  very  much  larger  number  had 
emigrated  from  England,  where  they  had  first  seen  the  light,  and  where  they 
had  received  their  first  lessons  in  letters  and  theology."  Bruce,  Institutional 
History  of  Virginia  in  the  Seventeenth  Century,  vol.  i,  p.  116.  The  names  of 
those  Anglican  ministers  who  received  through  the  Bishop  of  London  a  bounty 
to  defray  the  expenses  of  the  voyage  to  America  are  listed  by  G.  Pothergill, 
A  List  of  Emigrant  Ministers  to  America,  1690-1811,  London,  1904. 


8o         Training  of  the  Protestant  Ministry 


2.    The  Ministry  of  the  Dutch 

The  next  Protestant  ministry  established  in  America  was 
that  of  the  Dutch  in  their  settlements  in  what  is  now  New 
York.     It  was  of  the  Reformed  Church  of  Holland. 

(a)  Its  Numbers 

It  was  throughout  this  period  quite  small  in  numbers. 
Until  1664  there  had  been,  all  told,  fifteen  Dutch  ministers 
who  had  been  appointed  to  serve  in  one  way  or  another  in  the 
colony. '  At  that  date  there  were  only  six  actually  serving 
as  pastors.  In  1676  there  were  only  three.  ^  To  1700  there 
had  been  thirty-three  in  all,  including  the  Huguenots.  ^  The 
facts  as  to  their  careers  are  better  known  than  are  those  of 
the  Episcopal  ministry  of  the  same  period. 

(b)  Evidence  of  its  Training 

The  data  concerning  the  academic  training  of  these  men 
have  been  tabulated,  so  far  as  they  could  be  ascertained 
from  the  matriculation  books  of  the  universities  of  Leyden, 
Utrecht,  and  Groningen.  If  the  records  of  other  universities 
had  been  consulted,  the  proportion  of  ministers  known  to 
have  enjoyed  some  university  training  would  be  larger. 
Thirteen  had  studied  at  Leyden,  then  perhaps  the  most 
distinguished  school  of  reformed  theology  on  the  Continent, 
Second  to  Leyden  was  Utrecht,  with  six  men  listed, 
four  of  whom  had  studied  at  Leyden  also.  ■* 

There  is  more  information  available  about  the  Dutch 
universities  than  there  is  about  the  corresponding  French 

'  See  the  list  in  E.  T.  Corwin,  A  Manual  of  the  Reformed  Church  in  America 
(fourth  edition),  p.  1045. 

^  American  Church  History  Series,  vol.  viii,  pp.  57,  74. 

3  Corwin,  Mafiual,  p.  1045  f. 

<  Corwin,  Manual  of  the  Reformed  Church  in  America,  4th  ed.,  1902,  p. 
1045  f.;  cf.  Ecclesiastical  Records  of  the  State  of  New  York,  vi,  pp.  4405-4413. 


Training  of  the  Protestant  Ministry         8i 


"academies."  Two  at  least  of  the  French  Reformed  Minis- 
ters who  settled  in  America  in  the  seventeenth  century  had 
enjoyed  university  training :  Pierre  Daille,  who  came  out  in 
1683,  had  been  professor  in  the  academy  at  Saumur,  the  most 
liberal  Huguenot  school  of  theology;  and  Jacques  Laborei, 
who  came  in  1699,  had  completed  a  theological  course  in 
Geneva  in  1688. '  The  probability  is  that  most  of  the  French 
Reformed  ministers  had  enjoyed  some  academic  training. 

The  Dutch  did  not  refuse  to  ordain  a  few  good  men  who 
had  not  had  the  advantages  of  university  training.^  The 
Church  Order  of  Dort  (1619)  provided  that  with  synodical 
consent  a  classis  might  examirie  pious  and  discreet  school- 
masters, mechanics,  and  others  who  had  not  been  regular 
students.  If  they  were  found  worthy ,  the  classis  might  then 
prescribe  a  course  of  private  study  for  them,  ' '  after  which  they 
shall  be  dealt  with  as  shall  be  judged  conducive  to  edifica- 
tion."^    In  1638  the  Synod  of  North  Holland  ruled  that  this 

'Corwin,  Manual,  pp.  401,  563. 

'  See  W.  Goeters,  Die  Vorbereitung  des  Pietismus  in  der  reformierten  Kirche 
der  Niederlande,  Leipzig,  191 1,  p.  30.  In  the  nineteenth  century  the  law  was 
stricter.  A  royal  decree  of  1815  (art.  116)  barred  from  admission  to  the 
ministry  everyone  who  had  not  academic  degrees  and  everyone  who  had  not 
heard  the  prescribed  lectures  (H.  M.  C.  Van  Oosterzee,  De  Nederlandsche 
Hervormde  Kerk  in  hare  inrigting  en  bestuur,  Schiedam,  1861,  p.  54). 

3  Church  Order  art.  8,  translated  in  Ecclesiastical  Records,  vi,  p.  4219;  cf. 
G.  Brandt,  History  of  the  Reformation  .  .  .  in  and  about  the  Low-Countries, 
iii,  London,  1722,  p.  316.  The  Church  Order  is  in  the  Post-Acta  Synodalia 
adopted  by  the  Synod  of  Dort  after  the  foreign  delegates  had  gone  home  (see 
Corwin,  Digest  of  Constitutional  and  Synodical  Legislation  of  the  Reformed  Church 
in  America,  New  York,  1906,  p.  512  f.).  On  early  provincial  editions  of  the 
Church  Order  see  W.  P.  C.  Knuttel,  Nederlandsche  Bibliographic  van  Kerk- 
geschiedenis,  Amsterdam,  1889,  P-  5  {s-v.  Acta,  1668),  p.  126  and  p.  164  f.  The 
Post-Acta  have  been  published  in  Latin  and  in  Dutch,  with  copious  annotations, 
by  H.  H.  Kuyper,  De  Post-Acta  of  nahandelingen  van  de  nationale  Synode  van 
Dordrecht,  Amsterdam,  1899.  The  Church  Order  was  binding  on  the  French- 
speaking  or  Walloon  churches  also.  The  French  text  is  given  in  the  Livre 
synodal  contenant  les  articles  resolus  dans  les  synodes  des  Eglises  wallonnes  des 
Pays-Bas.  Public  par  la  Commission  de  I'htstoire  des  Eglises  wallonnes,  i,  La 
Haye  (1896),  pp.  268-276. 


82         Training  of  the  Protestant  Ministry 


standard  should  still  be  maintained,  and  that  no  one  not 
properly  called  should  preach  or  administer  the  sacraments 
on  the  mission  field  "except  in  some  great  necessity."* 

The  procedure  in  the  cases  of  persons  who  had  not  had 
the  necessary  university  training  may  be  traced  in  detail 
in  the  career  of  Johannes  Cornelissen  Backer,  who,  prior  to 
his  ordination  in  1642  was  required  to  preach  several  sermons 
before  the  Classis  of  Amsterdam,  and  to  pass  an  examination 
on  the  fundamentals  of  the  Christian  religion.  * 

(c)  AttainmeJits  and  Abilities 

The  attainments  and  abilities  of  many  of  the  Dutch 
ministers  are  well  known.  Jonas  Michaelius,  whose  stay  in 
the  country  was  only  some  three  years,  seems  to  have  been 
a  man  of  force  and  influence,  as  was  certainly  Johannes 
Megapolensis,  the  first  Protestant  missionary  to  the  Ameri- 
can Indians.  Samuel  Drisius  could  preach  in  German, 
French,  English,  or  Dutch,  and  had  been  the  minister  of 
the  Dutch  Church  at  Austin  Friars,  London.  He  came  to 
America  in  1652.  An  arrival  of  the  same  year  was  Gideon 
Schaats,  who  had  been  a  schoolmaster  at  Beest.  John  T. 
Polhemus,  who  came  in  1654,  was  the  first  to  propose  an 
association  of  American  ministers  and  churches  of  the 
Dutch  order.  Everardus  Welius,  who  came  in  1657,  is 
described  as  "a  man  of  piety  and  learning."  Hermanus 
Blom,  coming  in  1660,  saw  his  church  increase  in  three 
years  from  sixteen  members  to  sixty,  and  in  the  same  year 
there  came  Henry  Selyns,  who  is  described  as  the  most 
eminent  of  the  ministers  who  had  as  yet  arrived  from  Hol- 

'  Ecclesiastical  Records,  i,  p.  120,  referring  to  art.  3  of  the  Church  Order,  but 
involving  art.  8. 

^Ecclesiastical  Records,  vii  (Index),  62  f. ;  Corwin,  Manual,  p.  300  f. ;  A. 
Eekhof,  De  Hervormde  Kerk  in  Noord-Amerika  (1624-1664),  i,  's-Gravenhage, 
1913,  p.  77  f. — This  procedure  may  be  compared  with  that  in  the  case  of 
Everardus  Hardenbergius,  who  presented  credentials  from  the  theological 
faculty  at  Leyden  (Ecclesiastical  Records,  i,  n.  120) 


Training  of  the  Protestant  Ministry        83 


land,  and  as  "a  remarkable  man,  .  .  .  universally  esteemed 
for  his  talents  and  virtues."  Pierre  Daille,  the  Huguenot, 
who,  as  we  have  noted,  came  in  1683,  had  taught  at  Saumur, 
was  a  minister  of  prominence  and  usefulness  both  in  New 
York  and  Boston,  and  is  described  by  Selyns  as  being  "full 
of  fire,  godliness,  and  learning."  G.  DelUus,  who  came  the 
same  year,  was  prominent  in  civil  life,  and  active  in  work 
among  the  Indians.  J.  P.  Nucella,  arriving  in  1695,  was 
very  highly  commended  by  the  Classis,  which  sent  him  to 
America.  Gaulterus  Du  Bois,  coming  as  he  did  in  1699,  is 
the  last  arrival  of  the  period.  He  too  was  highly  esteemed 
by  his  contemporaries.  ^ 

{d)  Dutch  Control  of  American  Candidates 

The  Dutch  church  system  of  the  seventeenth  century 
made  no  provision  for  ordination  in  America.  This  became 
in  the  eighteenth  century  the  chief  point  of  tension  between 
the  Dutch  churches  here  and  the  authorities  in  the  Nether- 
lands. The  most  interesting  early  case  of  going  to  Holland 
for  ordination  is  that  of  Samuel  Megapolensis,  son  of  Dominie 
Johannes  Megapolensis  of  New  Amsterdam.  His  father  sent 
him  to  Harvard  for  three  years,  where  he  was  a  classmate 
of  the  delicate  and  precocious  Increase  Mather.  After  that 
he  sent  Samuel  to  Utrecht  with  letters  to  Professor  Voetius 
(whom  we  shall  discuss  later) .  Samuel  studied  six  years  in 
the  Netherlands,  pursuing  theology  at  Utrecht  and  a  little 
medicine  at  Leyden.  He  was  ordained  on  the  3d  of  October, 
1662,  by  the  Classis  of  Amsterdam.^ 

'  For  the  entire  paragraph,  see  American  Church  History  Series,  vol.  viii, 
pp.  28,  37,  41,  77,  80,  and  Corwin,  Manual,  s.  v.;  also  Corwan,  "The  Ecclesias- 
tical Condition  of  New  York  at  the  Opening  of  the  Eighteenth  Century,"  with 
chronological  lists  of  all  ministers  in  New  York  and  New  Jersey  prior  to 
1 7 ID  {Papers  of  tJie  American  Society  of  Church  History,  Second  Series, 
vol.  iii,  1912). 

'J.  L.  Sibley,  Biographical  Sketches  of  Graduates  of  Harvard  University , 
i.  P-  563  f. ;  Corwin,  Manual,  p.  615  f. ;  Ecclesiastical  Records,  vi,  441 1,  4413; 
vii,  257  f. 


84        Training  of  the  Protestant  Ministry 


Even  though  a  man  had  held  minor  ecclesiastical  posi- 
tions in  America  he  was  required  to  seek  ordination  in 
the  Netherlands.  Thus  Guilliam  Bartholf  (Bertholf,  Bar- 
tholdt),  who  had  been  acatechist,  voorlezer,  and  schoolmaster 
here,  had  to  secure  his  ordination  in  the  old  country.  ^ 

3.    The  Ministry  in  New  England 

The  next  ministry  in  the  order  of  time  was  that  of  New 
England.  It  properly  begins  with  the  year  1629,  when  the 
first  pastor,  Ralph  Smith,  began  his  work.  It  is  interesting 
to  note  in  passing  that  the  ruling  elder,  William  Brewster, 
who  had  served  Plymouth  in  the  place  of  a  minister  before 
the  arrival  of  Smith,  had  studied  at  Cambridge. 

(a)   The  First  Generation 

This  ministry  was  more  numerous  in  this  period  than 
either  of  the  others  that  have  been  considered. 

(i)  There  are  about  forty  (possibly  a  few  more  than 
that)  who  may  be  classed  as  belonging  to  the  first  genera- 
tion of  these  ministers. 

(2)  We  have  evidence  of  their  training  in  the  fact  that 
among  them  there  were  certainly  nineteen,  and  very  proba- 
bly more.  Bachelors  of  Arts,  fourteen  Masters  of  Arts, 
three  Bachelors  of  Divinity,  and  four  who  had  been  Fellows 
of  colleges.  ^ 

'  Corwin,  Manual,  p.  102;  p.  317  f. 

^  The  Bachelors  of  Arts  were  Charles  Chauncy,  John  Cotton,  John  Daven- 
port, Samuel  Eaton,  John  Fiske,  John  Harvard,  Francis  Higginson,  William 
Hooke,  Peter  Hobart,  John  Lothropp,  Thomas  Parker,  Samuel  Skelton, 
Nathaniel  Ward,  Thomas  Welde,  Abraham  Pierson,  Ezekiel  Rogers,  Nathan- 
iel Rogers,  Samuel  Whiting,  Roger  Williams.  All  were  Masters  of  Arts  except 
Fiske,  Lothropp,  Pierson,  Nathaniel  Rogers,  and  WiUiams.  The  Bachelors  of 
Divinity  were  Charles  Chauncy,  John  Cotton,  John  Davenport;  the  Fellows, 
Peter  Bulkley,  Chauncy,  Cotton,  and  Thomas  Hooker.  {Alumni  Oxonienses; 
C.  H.  Cooper  and  T.  Cooper,  Athence  Cantabrigienses ;  W.  B.  Sprague,  Annals 
0}  the  American  Pulpit.) 


Training  of  the  Protestant  Ministry        85 


(3)  As  to  their  attainments  and  abilities,  the  following 
established  facts,  which  are  recorded  in  various  biographical 
notices  of  them,^  are  significant. 

John  Allin  preached  for  a  considerable  time  in  the  Church 
of  England,  and  is  said  to  have  "possessed  a  vigorous,  acute, 
and  discriminating  understanding,  and  for  the  age  and  cir- 
cumstances under  which  he  was  placed, ' '  to  have  written  well. 
Peter  Bulkley,  son  of  a  distinguished  minister,  preached  in 
England  for  twenty-one  years,  was  a  distinguished  scholar, 
and  wrote  Latin  with  great  ease  and  elegance.  Charles 
Chauncy,  one  of  the  most  thorough  Hebrew  scholars  of 
his  day,  was  chosen  Professor  of  Hebrew,  and  afterwards,  of 
Greek,  in  Cambridge.  He  held  a  high  place  in  England  as 
a  preacher,  and  was  honored  in  America  by  being  made 
President  of  Harvard  College.  John  Cotton  was  confessedly 
one  of  the  most  distinguished  Englishmen  of  his  time.  He 
was  invited  to  sit  in  the  Westminster  Assembly.  Pupils 
in  theology  came  to  him  not  only  from  England,  but  also 
from  Germany  and  Holland.  John  Davenport  had  dis- 
played great  proficiency  as  a  student,  ^  and  obtained  great 
repute  as  a  preacher  in  England.  He,  too,  had  been  in- 
vited to  the  Westminster  Assembly.  Samuel  Eaton  w-as  a 
man  of  great  learning,  held  in  high  esteem  by  the  Puritans, 
and,  after  his  return  to  England,  w^as  pastor  of  a  Con- 
gregational Church,  though  he  had  been  previously  ordained 
episcopally,  and  had  held  a  benefice  before  coming  to  America. 
John  Fiske,  who  had  also  been  a  minister  in  England,  had 
studied  medicine  as  well  as  theology,  and  was  licensed 
to  practice  "after  a  thorough  examination."  Henry  Flint 
had  the  reputation  of  an  able  minister.  Ephraim  Huit  is 
described  as  "a  man  of  superior  talents  and  eminent  useful- 
ness."    Francis  Higginson  was  very  popular  in  his  native 

'  Especially  W.  B.  Sprague,  Annals  of  the  American  Pulpit,  vol.  i. 
'  He  had  received  the   M.A.  and  the  B.D.  degrees  at  the  same  time. 
Sprague,  Annals  of  the  American  pulpit,  vol.  i,  p.  93. 


86         Training  of  the  Protestant  Ministry 


country,  and  was  offered  several  excellent  livings  there. 
William  Hooke,  "a  learned  man,"  was  a  close  student,  had 
been  vicar  of  Axmouth,  and  upon  his  return  to  "England 
became  domestic  chaplain  to  Cromwell.  Thomas  Hooker 
was  a  preacher  of  great  reputation  in  both  countries,  and  in 
Holland  also,  and  was  another  of  this  company  to  be  in- 
vited to  the  Westminster  Assembly.  Peter  Hobart  had 
been  a  successful  preacher  in  England.  Thomas  James, 
John  Lothropp,  Richard  Mather,  John  Maverick,  and 
Edward  Norris  were  all  ministers  of  efficiency  in  the  English 
Church  in  their  native  country.  The  great  scholarship  of 
Thomas  Parker  is  well  known.  His  diploma  is  said  to 
have  contained  special  mention  of  his  high  attainments. 
It  is  scarcely  necessary  to  mention  the  name  of  the  vivid 
historic  figure,  Hugh  Peters.  Abraham  Pierson,  who 
preached  for  some  years  in  England,  is  described  by  Winthrop 
as  "a  godly,  learned  man."  Ezekiel  Rogers  was  influential 
in  his  own  community  in  England,  while  Nathaniel  Rogers 
was  a  man  of  "eminent  learning."  Another  of  those  es- 
teemed in  the  mother  country  was  Samuel  Skelton,  of 
Lincolnshire.  Zechariah  Symmes  had  been  a  tutor  in 
several  distinguished  families,  and  was  rector  of  Dunstable, 
England.  Nathaniel  Ward  was  a  minister  of  high  repute  in 
both  England  and  America,  and  a  lawyer  and  physician  of 
ability.  Another  who  was  eminent  as  a  preacher  in  the 
home  land  was  Ralph  Wheelock,  Samuel  Stone  was  a  man 
of  "superior  accomplishments."  Henry  Whitfield'  was  "a 
good  scholar,  a  great  divine,  and  an  excellent  preacher." 
Samuel  Whiting  was  an  accomplished  scholar,  especially  in 
Hebrew  and  Latin.  John  Wilson  had  ministered  at  Sud- 
bury, England,  and  was  of  high  connection  by  birth.*  It 
is  said  of  Ralph  Smith,  the  first  New  England  pastor,  that 

'  He  had  also  studied  law,  Sprague,  op.  cit.,  p.  loo. 

'  Supposed  to  have  studied  at  Cambridge,  but  not  to  have  proceeded  to  a 
degree;  see  J.  B.  Mullinger,  The  University  of  Cambridge,  vol.  iii,  p.  179  note. 


Training  of  the  Protestant  Ministry         87 


he  was  of  moderate  ability.  Thomas  Welde  was  agent  of 
the  colony  with  Hugh  Peters,  and  accompanied  Lord  Forbes 
to  Ireland.  Roger  Williams  founded  a  commonwealth, 
while  his  linguistic  accomplishments  are  well  known. 

(4)  Of  those  constituting  this  generation  of  New  Eng- 
land ministers,  twenty-one  were  Cambridge  men,  six  were 
of  Oxford, '  one  seems  to  have  had  no  university  training,  * 
while  the  place,  but  not  the  fact,  of  the  training  of  the 
others  seems  in  doubt.  It  is  very  probable,  however,  that  in 
the  cases  where  the  place  of  training  has  not  been  definitely 
determined,  it  was  one  of  the  English  universities. 

(b)  The  Second  Generation 

The  second  generation  of  the  New  England  ministry 
was  (i)  more  nimierous  than  the  first.  As  to  origin,  it  was 
mixed,  being  partly  foreign,  and  partly  native  to  America 
The  larger  part  was  foreign.  But  it  consisted  chiefly  of 
those  who  came  to  the  colonies  in  childhood,  or  in  their 
early  youth.  A  score  or  more  seem  to  have  been  of  this 
class. 

(2)  Among  the  whole  number,  the  lists  disclose  only 
three  or  four  without  college  training.  ^ 

(3)  As  to  their  attainments  and  abilities,  the  records 
of  some  of  them  afford  the  following  data : 

Thomas  Shepard,  a  Master  of  Arts  of  Cambridge,  '^  born 
and  trained  in  England,  was  held  in  high  repute  as  a  writer  in 

'  Of  Cambridge  were  Bulkley,  Chauncy,  Cotton,  Eaton,  Fiske,  Harvard, 
Higginson,  Hooker,  Skelton,  Smith,  Stone,  Symmes,  Ward,  Welde,  Wheelock, 
Peters,  Pierson,  Ezekiel  Rogers  and  Nathaniel  Rogers,  Whiting,  and  Williams; 
of  Oxford,  Davenport,  Hooke,  Lothropp,  Mather,  Samuel  Newman,  and 
Parker. 

»  The  elder  Thomas  Mayhew,  of  Martha's  Vineyard,  who  began  to  preach 
to  the  Indians  late  in  life;  Sprague,  Annals  of  the  American  Pulpit,  vol.  i,  p.  132. 

J  John  Higginson,  Francis  Dane,  John  Fitch,  and  Thomas  Mayhew,  Jr., 
whom  his  father  succeeded  at  Martha's  Vineyard. 

*  Sprague,  op.  cit.,  vol.  i,  p.  59. 


88         Training  of  the  Protestant  Ministry 


his  native  country  as  well  as  in  the  colonies.  John  Knowles, ' 
of  the  same  class  as  to  birth  and  training,  was  a  Fellow  and 
Tutor  of  Katherine  Hall,  Cambridge.  These  two  were, 
of  course,  active  as  contemporaries  of  the  men  of  the  first 
generation.  But  they  are  classed  here  as  of  the  second, 
because  they  were  still  children  when  the  settlement  of 
New  England  was  actually  begun. 

John  Bulkley,  ^  Isaac  and  Ichabod  Chauncy,^  Benjamin 
Woodbridge,''  Comfort  Star,  ^  Samuel  and  Nathaniel 
Mather,^  became  ministers  in  England.  Increase  Mather 
was  invited  to  do  so.  ^  Bulkley  and  the  two  Chauncys 
were  finally  physicians  in  England.  Woodbridge  succeeded 
the  famous  Twiss  in  charge  of  Sudbury. 

Samuel  Mather  became  chaplain  of  Magdalen  College, 
Oxford,  preached  in  Scotland  and  Ireland,  was  Senior  Fellow 
of  Trinity,  Dublin,  minister  of  St.  Nicholas  Church,  and 
held  high  rank  both  as  preacher  and  scholar. 

Nathaniel  Mather  was  presented  to  a  living  by  Cromwell, 
preached  in  Rotterdam,  Dublin,  and  London.  His  epitaph, 
written  by  Dr.  Watts,  describes  him  as  a  man  of  genius  and 
learning. 

John  Rogers  was  not  only  an  eminent  minister  in  America, 
but  also  had  "a  larger  medical  practice  than  any  other 
physician"  in  his  town. 

Samuel  Danforth  was  an  astronomer  of  local  repute,  and 
published  almanacs. 

Urian  Oakes  was  a  minister  in  England,  and  afterwards 
President  of  Harvard. 

Michael  Wigglesworth,  Fellow  and  Tutor  of  Harvard, 
was,  besides  being  a  minister,  also  a  successful  physician. 

'  Sprague,  op.  cit.,  vol.  i,  p.  Ii8. 

"Sibley,  J.  L.,  Biographical  Sketches  of  Graduates  of  Harvard  University, 
vol.  i,  p.  52. 

3  Ibid.,  pp.  302,  308;  Sprague,  op.  cit.,  vol.  i,  p.  113. 

4  Sibley,  op.  cit.,  vol.  i,  p.  20.  s  Ibid.,  p.  162. 

^  Ibid.,  pp.  80,  157,  respectively.  '  Ibid.,  p.  413  sq. 


Training  of  the  Protestant  Ministry        89 


Joshua  Moodey  was  a  highly  influential  minister  in  New 
England,  and  notable  for  his  enlightened  and  consistent 
opposition  to  the  "witchcraft  delusion."  The  attainments 
and  abilities  of  the  first  two  generations  of  the  ministry 
of  New  England  have,  of  course,  been  matters  of  frequent 
and  emphatic  remark  since  the  days  of  Cotton  Mather. 
From  what  has  been  stated  above,  it  is  also  clear  that 
there  were,  among  the  ministry  of  Virginia  and  New 
York  during  the  same  period,  not  a  few  of  corresponding 
rank. 

(4)  As  to  the  places  of  their  training,  we  have  sufficient 
indication  in  the  fact  that  of  the  ministers  of  New  England 
who  may,  within  rough  but  reasonable  limits,  be  classed  as 
belonging  to  the  second  generation,  there  have  been  counted 
twenty-two  names  of  those  of  foreign  birth  who  were  edu- 
cated in  America.  ^  Three  of  these  seem  to  have  begun  their 
training  in  England  and  completed  it  in  the  colonies.^ 
Twenty-one  went  to  Harvard,  of  whom  one  did  not  gradu- 
ate. •^  Besides  these,  there  were  about  eight  Cambridge  men 
and  seven  of  Oxfords  The  training  of  fourteen  is  not 
known. 

The  native  born  were  all  trained  in  America  and  practi- 
cally all  at  Harvard.  ^    John  Higginson,  who  seems  to  have 

'  Namely,  John  Bulkley,  Benjamin  Woodbridge,  William  Hubbard,  Isaac 
Chauncy,  Roger  Newton,  Ichabod  Chauncy,  John  Rogers,  Samuel  Stow, 
Francis  Dane,  John  Wilson,  Samuel  Danforth,  Jonathan  Mitchell,  Urian 
Cakes,  John  Brock,  Michael  Wigglesworth,  Comfort  Star,  Joshua  Hobart, 
John  Higginson,  Samuel  Torrey,  Joshua  Moodey,  Samuel  Mather,  Nathaniel 
Mather. 

'  Francis  Dane,  Roger  Newton,  Thomas  Thacher. 

3  Samuel  Torrey  {v.  Sibley,  op.  cit.,  vol.  i,  App.,  p.  564). 

■I  Of  Cambridge:  Thomas  Allen,  Henry  Dunster,  John  Eliot,  Peter  Hobart, 
John  Knowles,  John  Norton,  Thomas  Shepard,  John  Sherman  ;  of  Oxford  : 
James  Allen,  Thomas  Cobbett,  John  Jones,  Samuel  Lee,  Charles  Morton, 
James  Noyes,  John  Oxenbridge. 

s  In  1696  the  overwhelming  majority  of  New  England  churches  had  as 
pastors  graduates  of  Harvard  College  :  see  the  tables  in  Cotton  Mather, 
Magnalia,  book  i,  chap.  vii. 


90        Training  of  the  Protestant  Ministry 


been  the  first  fruits  of  the  colonies  so  far  as  the  ministry- 
is  concerned,  appears  to  have  had  no  college  training,' 
while  Increase  Mather  enjoyed  the  privilege  of  foreign 
study. 

With  this  generation  of  New  England  ministers  we  have 
the  rise  of  the  first  ministry  of  American  training. 

4.    The  Foreign  and  the  Native  Opportunities 

In  order  to  form  an  estimate  of  the  training  actually  re- 
ceived by  the  American  ministry  of  the  seventeenth  century, 
it  is  necessary  to  consider  the  requirements  and  advantages 
of  the  institutions  at  which  it  was  received.  That  is,  we 
have  to  examine  the  course  of  study  and  method  of  instruc- 
tion in  use  during  the  period  in  the  universities  of  Holland 
and  of  England,  and  in  the  American  colleges. 

(a)     In  the  United  Netherlands 

On  the  ideals  and  actual  requirements  of  theological 
education  in  the  United  Netherlands  in  the  seventeenth 
century  it  is  hard  to  find  a  more  competent  witness  than 
Professor  Voetius.  As  a  young  pastor,  Gijsbert  Voet 
(i 588-1 676)  had  taken  an  active  part  in  the  Synod  of  Dort. 
From  1634  to  1676,  a  period  of  forty- two  years,  he  was  a 
professor  of  theology  in  the  University  of  Utrecht.^  He 
taught  Hebrew,  Arabic,  Syriac,  and  especially  controversial 
theology.     He  obeyed  literally  the  eighteenth  article  of  the 

'  Sprague,  op.  cit.,  vol.  i,  p.  91. 

'  On  Voetius  see  B.  Glasius,  Godgeleerd  Nederland,  iii,  's-Hertogenbosch, 
1856,  pp.  526-540;  A.  Kuyper,  Encyclopcedie  der  heilige  Codgeleerdheid,  i 
(Amsterdam,  1894),  PP-  169-175;  J.  J.  Van  Oosterzee  and  S.  D.  Van  Veen,  in 
Herzog-Hauck,  Realencyklopddie,  etc.,  xx  (Leipzig,  1908),  pp.  717-725.  The 
standard  biography  is  not  accessible:  A.  C.  Duker,  Gisbertus  Voetius,  Leyden, 
1897-1915  (see  the  supplementary  material  published  in  the  Nederlandsch 
Archief  voor  Kerkgeschiedenis,  nieuwe  serie,  12.  deel,  's-Gravenhage,  1916,  pp. 
158-201). 


Training  of  the  Protestant  Ministry         91 


Church  Order  of  Dort,  which  made  it  the  duty  of  a  professor 
of  theology  "to  defend  the  pure  doctrine  against  heresies 
and  errors,"  by  attacking  not  merely  Roman  Catholics  but 
even  other  Reformed  theologians,  such  as  Maresius  of 
Sedan  and  Groningen,  and  the  famous  advocate  of  the 
Federal  Theology,  Cocceius  of  Leyden. 

In  his  Politica  Ecclesiastica  (1669),  Voetius  summarized 
his  views  of  theological  education. '  The  boy  intended  for 
the  ministry  should  pass  through  the  primary  vernacular 
school,  with  its  strong  emphasis  on  religion,  and  through 
the  "trivial"  or  Latin  school,^  with  its  stress  on  Latin, 
Greek,  and  the  elements  of  Hebrew. 

For  the  study  of  theology  at  the  university  or  academy^ 
Voetius  demanded  four  years.  -^  Into  this  period  he  proposed 
to  pack  many  subjects.  True  to  his  high  views  of  biblical 
authority,  he  put  first  the  study  of  "textual,  "  or  as  we  should 


^Politica  ecclesiasHccB  pars  secunda,  Amstelodami,  1669,  lib.  iii,  tract,  iv 
(pp.  728-774).  In  earlier  works  (p.  728)  he  had  treated  these  topics  at  greater 
length,  particularly  in  his  Exercitia  et  bibliotheca  studiosi  theologies,  of  which 
the  second  enlarged  edition  appeared  at  Utrecht  in  1651.  On  its  contents  see 
C.  Sepp,  Het  godgeleerd  onderwijs  in  Nederland  gedurende  de  i6e  en  ije  eeuw, 
ii  (Leyden,  1874),  pp.  156-160. — Of  other  Dutch  works  contemporary  with 
Voetius  one  may  mention  Antonii  Perizonii,  De  ratione  studii  theologici  tractatiis, 
Daventriffi  [1669]. 

^  "  Schola  trivialis,  (quce  &  pcedagogia,  gymnasium,  schola  latina,  schola 
particularis,  schola  classica,  dicitur)  est  societas  discentium  etdocentium,  linguas, 
artes,  religionem  &  bonos  mores;  qiiibus  ptieri  ad  Academica  studia  prceparantur" 
(Voetius,  ii,  p.  741).  See  the  discussion  of  the  term  in  W.  H.  Kilpatrick, 
Dutch  Schools  of  New  Netherland,  Washington,  1912,  p.  95  fi. 

3  "Schola  suprema,  quce  etiam  universitas,  studium  generate,  Academia  diet 
solet"  (Voetius,  ii,  p.  743). 

^  Sepp,  op.  cit.,  p.  158. — Voetius  quotes  at  length  (pp.  728-730)  from  a 
memorial  on  ministerial  education  presented  on  the  first  of  December,  1618,  at 
the  eighteenth  session  of  the  Synod  of  Dort  by  the  deputies  of  the  province  of 
Zeeland.  It  recommended  that  future  pastors  should  spend  five  or  six  years 
at  the  universities  in  the  study  of  philosophy,  the  languages  and  theology,  and 
should  not  imitate  the  temerity  of  certain  youngsters  who  had  sought  ordi- 
nation after  scarcely  more  than  two  years  of  study  (Of.  Acta  synodi  nationalis 
.  .  .  Dordrechti  habitce,  Dordrechti,  1620,  p.  51  f.). 


92         Training  of  the  Protestant  Ministry 


say,  exegetical  theology.  This  involved  for  all  students 
the  study  of  Greek  and  Hebrew,  and  for  some  of  them, 
acquaintance  with  other  oriental  languages.  Special  atten- 
tion was  to  be  given  to  pivotal  books  such  as  Genesis,  Isaiah, 
the  Psalms,  Matthew,  John,  Romans,  Hebrews,  and  to 
chapters  bearing  on  controverted  points  such  as  the  Lord's 
Supper.  The  second  main  division  of  the  course  dealt 
with  systematic  or  dogmatic  theology,  studied  as  a  whole 
and  in  all  its  parts  and  not  merely  in  an  epitome. '  The 
third  and  last  department  of  study  was  theologia  elenctica  et 
problematica,  a  thorough  treatment  of  recent  controversies 
between  the  orthodox  Calvinists  and  their  opponents,  be 
these  Arminian,  Socinian,  Roman  Catholic,  Anabaptist, 
Jewish,  or  atheistic.^ 

These  three  fields — exegetical,  systematic,  controversial 
— did  not  exhaust  the  interests  of  Voetius.  Over  against  an 
ancient  and  persistent  tendency  in  Protestantism  to  train 
the  minister  chiefly  as  a  preacher,^  Voetius  emphasized 
the  idea  that  the  university  should  teach  practical  theology, 
under  which  he  included  branches  such  as  the  study  of  the 
decalogue  and  of  cases  of  conscience,  ■*  of  ascetical  theology 
and  of  ecclesiastical  polity,  in  addition  to  frequent  exercises 
in  preaching.  ^  The  message  which  was  upon  his  heart  we 
may  summarize  in  the  phrase  "pious  efBciency."  His 
inaugural  lecture  in  1634  was  entitled  ''De  pietate  cum 
scientid  conjungendd'' ;^  and  he  and  his  colleagues  were 
accustomed  to  try  to  promote  piety  and  virtue  among  their 

I  Voetius  probably  had  in  mind  brief  works  such  as  WiUiam  Ames's  Medulla 
theologica  (Amsterdam,  1623).  This  was  translated  into  English  as  The 
Marrow  of  Sacred  Divinity  (London,  1642),  and  into  Dutch  by  L.  Meyer 
(Amsterdam,  1656).  ^  Sepp,  op.  cit.,  p.  158  f. 

3  See  Caspari  in  Herzog-Hauck,  Realeticyklopddie,  3rd  ed.,  xix,  p.  649,  4  ff. 

4  See  R.  M.  Wenley  in  the  Encydopcedia  of  Religion  and  Ethics,  vol.  iii, 
1911,  p.  245. 

s  This  broader  view  had  been  taken  in  the  preceding  century  by  Andreas 
Hyperius,  professor  in  Marburg,  who  died  in  1564  (see  Achelis,  in  Herzog- 
Hauck,  viii,  504).  *  Herzog-Hauck,  xx,  p.  718,  21. 


Training  of  the  Protestant  Ministry         93 


students  by  precept,  by  judicious  praise,  by  occasional 
individual  interviews,  and  by  urging  them  to  take  part  in 
the  activities  of  the  Church/ 

The  Walloon  churches  of  the  United  Netherlands  were 
frequently,  served  by  men  trained  at  the  Huguenot  academies 
of  France,  especially  at  Saumur,  Sedan,  Montauban,  Nimes, 
Die,  Montpellier,  and  Orthez.  Each  had  a  chair  of  theology, 
and  usually  a  chair  of  Greek  and  a  chair  of  Hebrew.  '^  Ideals 
of  theological  education  such  as  characterized  the  Huguenot 
academies  a  few  years  before  their  dissolution  by  Louis 
XIV  were  sketched  by  Etienne  Gaussen,  professor  of  theo- 
logy at  Saumur  from  1665  till  his  death  in  1675.  ^  He 
published  in  1670  four  dissertations,  one  of  which  was 
entitled  De  ratione  studii  theologici.  This  was  reprinted 
several  times  in  the  seventeenth  and  eighteenth  centuries. 
It  is  a  guide  to  reading  and  study''  extending  well  over 
three  years.  ^ 

At  the  time  when  the  first  ministers  in  America  were 
actually  students  in  the  English  universities  the  mediaeval 
system,  so  long  prevalent  in  these  institutions,  had  already 
been  much  modified,  and  was  still  in  process  of  further  change. 

{b)  At  Cambridge 

At  Cambridge,  where  most  of  the  early  American  minis- 
ters were  trained,  the  statutes  of  1549  had  caused  the  com- 

'  Voetius,  Politica,  ii,  pp.  733-736.  In  his  work  Die  Vorhereitung  des  Pietis- 
mus  in  der  reformierten  Kirche  der  Niederlande  bis  ziir  Labadistischen  Krisis  16^0, 
Wilhelm  Goeters  devotes  many  pages  to  Voetius  and  his  followers;  see  espe- 
cially pp.  17-20. 

'  P.  D.  Bourchenin,  in  his  Etudes  sur  les  academies  prolestantes  en  France 
au  X  F/«  et  au  X  VII"  Steele  (Paris,  1882. — Thfese),  pp.  463  flf.,  gives  a  partial  list 
of  the  holders  of  these  chairs.  Cf.  also  C.  A.  Briggs,  History  of  the  Study  of 
Theology,  ii  (New  York,  1916),  pp.  157-161. 

^  F.  Lichtenberger,  Encyclopedic  des  sciences  religieuses,  v,  Paris,  1878,  p. 
441  f. ;  Bourchenin,  as  cited,  p.  331. 

*  Stephani  Gausseni,  Dissertationes  .  .  .  editio  septima,  cura  Ev.  Scheidii, 
Lugduni  Batavorum,  1792.  ^  Ibid.,  p.  42. 


94         Training  of  the  Protestant  Ministry 


plete  recasting  of  the  ancient  trivium.  The  study  of  gram- 
mar had  been  abolished.  Mathematics  had  been  substituted 
for  it  as  the  initial  study.  The  further  course  consisted  of 
dialectics  and  philosophy,  in  that  order.  In  place  of  the 
quadrivium  of  the  bachelor's  course  there  was  further  instruc- 
tion in  philosophy,  and  then,  perspective,  astronomy,  and 
Greek.'  The  Master  of  Arts,  after  his  term  of  regency, 
unless  he  intended  to  study  law  or  medicine,  was  required 
to  give  all  his  attention  to  theology  and  Hebrew.  Bachelors 
of  divinity  had  to  hear  a  theological  lecture  every  day,  and 
to  take  part  at  least  three  times  in  certain  disputations  in 
theology,  and  to  preach  twice  in  Latin  and  once  in  English.  * 
These  regulations  were,  however,  further  modified  by  the 
Elizabethan  statutes,  so  that  the  following  is  believed  to  be  a 
fair  summary  of  the  requirements  at  Cambridge  in  the  latter 
part  of  the  sixteenth  century.  Mathematics  had,  in  its  turn, 
been  excluded  from  the  prescribed  undergraduate  course. 
Professors  still  lectured  in  it,  but  attendance  was  not  com- 
pulsory. ^  The  text  books  were  antiquated  for  the  period. 
Logic  and  rhetoric  formed  the  chief  elements  of  the  ordinary 
academic  culture  of  the  time,  while  theology  was  the  study 
that  received  most  attention.  '^ 

There  were  competent  instructors  in  Hebrew  and  Greek, 
but  these  subjects  had  fallen  into  decay.  Of  the  two,  the 
former  was  more  in  favor.  ^  Ethics,  physics,  and  meta- 
physics, of  the  traditional  kinds  then  in  vogue,  were  studied 

'  J.  B.  MuUinger,  The  University  of  Cambridge  from  the  Royal  Injunctions  of 
^535  ^^  ^^^  Accession  of  Charles  I,  pp.  no,  in,  230;  The  University  of  Cam- 
bridge from  the  Election  to  the  Chancellorship  in  1626  to  the  Decline  of  the 
Platonist  Movement,  p.  136  sq.  '  Ibid. 

3  MuUinger,  The  University  of  Cambridge  from  the  Royal  Injunctions  of 
75  J5  to  the  Accession  of  Charles  I,  p.  402.  As  the  explanation  of  this,  MuUin- 
ger says:  "  Even  at  that  time,  1632,  he  [WaUis]  teUs  us,  mathematics  were  more 
studied  in  London  than  at  either  of  the  universities,  owing  to  the  fact  that  the 
subjects  included  under  that  designation  were  looked  upon  as  pertaining  to 
practical  life  rather  than  to  the  curriculum  of  a  university  .  .  .  ."  (Ibid.,  p. 
403,  n.  I.)  *  Ibid.,  p.  414.  i  Ibid.,  p.  416. 


Training  of  the  Protestant  Ministry         95 


by  the  more  intelligent  and  industrious  students.'  But, 
according  to  high  authority,  ^  the  schoolmen  were  the  final 
authorities  on  these  subjects,  and  in  questions  upon  them 
' '  the  dictum  of  a  Latin  or  Greek  Father  was  often  accepted 
as  final." 

(c)  At  Oxford 

At  Oxford  the  candidate  for  the  B.A.,  at  least  in  the 
earlier  part  of  this  period,  was  to  pursue  parallel  courses  in 
collegiate  and  university  training,  which  involved  attend- 
ance at  lectures  and  disputations  in  each.  Attendance  at 
the  lectures,  and  the  taking  of  notes  upon  them,  were  com- 
pulsory. The  course  is  described,  and  was  so  at  the  time, 
as  ' ' in  dialectica, ' '  and  included  grammar,  logic,  and  rhetoric.  ^ 

The  course  for  the  M.A.  was  described  as  "in  utraque 
philosophia,"  i.  e.,  moral  and  natural.  ■♦  The  candidate  for 
the  former  degree  was  required  to  lecture  in  two  ways. 
First,  there  was  the  "solem?iis  lectio,''  which  was  a  formal 
lecture,  giving  an  explanation  of  a  particular  point,  or 
question. 5  Secondly,  there  was  the  "cursoria  lectio," 
which  consisted  in  reading  through  a  book,  perhaps  translat- 
ing it,  and  making  comments  on  it.  The  candidate  was 
also  to  participate  in  "disputations,"  both  as  respondent 

'  Mullinger,  The  University  of  Cambridge  from  the  Royal  Injunctions  of  1535 
to  the  Accession  of  Charles  I,  p.  414.  ^  Ibid. 

3  The  Register  of  the  University  of  Oxford,  vol.  ii,  part  i,  p.  66. 

^  Concerning  the  M.A.  at  Cambridge:  "The  studies  that  belonged  to  the 
quadrivium,  or  curriculum  for  the  master  of  arts  degree,  sank  into  insignificance 
now  that  residence  for  that  degree  was  no  longer  compulsory  and  the  require- 
ments for  its  attainment  had  been  limited  to  the  keeping  of  one  or  two  acts  and 
the  composition  of  a  single  declamation.  We  may,  however,  divide  the 
bachelors  at  this  period  into  two  classes :  the  non-residents  (most  of  whom  had 
ceased  to  look  forward  to  ever  proceeding  to  their  master  of  arts  degree) ,  and 
the  residents,  a  small  minority  composed  almost  exclusively  of  clerical  fellows 
of  colleges,  whose  time  was  mainly  given  to  the  all-absorbing  controversial 
theology  of  the  day  and  the  composition  of  'commonplaces,'  to  be  delivered 
in  the  college  chapel." — Mullinger,  op.  cit.,  p.  414. 

5  The  Register  of  the  University  of  Oxford,  vol.  ii,  part  i,  p.  76. 


9^        Training  of  the  Protestant  Ministry 


and  proponent."  For  the  M.A.  degree,  the  Bachelor  of 
Arts  had  to  "read,"  according  to  the  statute  of  1579,  first, 

duos  libros  ad  minus,  unum  de  veteri  logica,  et  alterum  de  nova, 
vel  ambos  de  nova,  et  nnum  de  lihris  naturalibus,  viz.  quattuor  Coeli 
et  Miindi,  vel  quattuor  libros  Meteorum-,  aut  duos  libros  de  genera- 
tione  et  corruptione,  vel  librum  de  sensu  et  sensato  cum  libris  de 
memoria  et  reminiscentia  et  de  somno  et  vigilia,  vel  librum  de  motu 
animalium  cum  duobiis  libris  mimetis  Jiaturalibus.^ 

The  student  was  conducted  through  the  entire  course  by 
the  same  tutor,  who  began  with  him  in  grammar  and 
finished  with  the  two  philosophies,  natural  and  moral.  ^ 

The  period  of  required  residence^  was,  under  the  Eliza- 
bethan statutes,  four  years  for  the  B.A.,  and  three  more 
for  the  M.A.  Exceptions  were  made  in  the  cases  of  the  sons 
of  peers,  and  of  knights,  and  the  eldest  sons  of  squires.  These 
might,  if  they  so  chose,  receive  the  B.A.  in  three  years,  a 
privilege  which,  it  is  said,  they  usually  claimed.  There 
were  opportunities  for  the  study  of  Latin,  Greek,  and  Hebrew. 
Latin  was  supposed  to  be  the  language  of  ordinary  inter- 
course in  the  colleges;  for  instance,  at  meals.  But  this 
usage  fell  into  decay,  and  by  the  time  of  Laud's  Chancel- 
lorship at  Oxford  was  practically  extinct  at  both  univer- 
sities. ^ 

The  following  list^  of  books  known  to  have  been  pur- 
chased by  a  tutor  for  the  use  of  an  undergraduate  of  this 
period  is  of  interest  as  suggesting  the  probable  range  and 
character  of  the  reading  in  course. 

'  The  Register  of  the  University  of  Oxford,  vol.  ii,  part  i,  p.  13. 

^  Ibid.,  p.  77. 

3  After  saying  that  this  was  undoubtedly  the  practice  at  Oxford  between 
1570  and  1620,  the  compiler  adds,  "at  Oxford  this  system  had  partially  broken 
down."     Ibid.,  p.  4.  ■*  Ibid.,  p.  13. 

5  Mullinger,  The  University  of  Cambridge,  vol.  iii,  p.  136,  sq. 

^  These  were  purchased  by  Ralph  Eaton,  a  tutor  for  a  student  in  Brasenose; 
see  The  History  of  Brasenose  College,  being  volume  liii  of  the  Publications  of 
The  Oxford  Historical  Society,  section  xi,  p.  20. 


Training  of  the  Protestant  Ministry        97 


Lucius  Florus,  de  gestis  Romanorum,  lib.  iv. 

Lyford,  'Wm.,  Principles  of  Faith  and  good  conscience  digested  into 

Catechetical  forme. 
Sidney,  Sir  Philip,  The  Countess  of  Pembroke's  Arcadia. 
Sanderson,  Dr.  Robert,  D.D.,  Logicce  Artis  Compendium. 
Stahl,  Daniel,  Axiomata  philosophica. 
Isendoorn,  Logica  Peripatetica. 
Wollebius,  Compendium  Theologice  Christiance. 

The  course  in  arts  is  said  by  the  best  authority  to  have 
been  at  this  time  "the  only  portal  to  theology."'     And  if 

'  Register  of  the  University  of  Oxford,  vol.  ii,  pt.  i,  p.  7.  The  following  from 
Mullinger  {The  University  of  Cambridge,  vol.  iii,  pp.  135-136)  should  be  noted 
inasmuch  as  it  summarizes  the  changes  of  this  period  as  they  seem  to  have 
produced  a  rather  final  form  of  curriculum:  "The  Code  [Laudian]  which,  with 
a  few  trifling  additions,  became  the  law  of  Oxford  down  to  the  University 
Reform  Act  of  1854,  ^^s  largely  a  digest  of  the  statutes  already  in  force,  in 
which,  beyond  the  removal  of  certain  redundances  and  discrepancies  and  the 
omission  of  a  few  obsolete  provisions,  little  was  done  in  the  way  of  alteration. 
In  one  respect,  indeed,  this  Code  might  well  seem  reactionary,  for  the  impor- 
tance of  dialectic  and  the  authority  of  Aristotle  were  to  be  strenuously  inci^l- 
cated,  it  being  especially  enjoined  that,  on  the  day  of  the  creation  of  general 
Sophisters,  one  of  the  Regents  should  ascend  the  rostrum  (suggestum)  in  tht 
school  of  Natural  Philosophy,  and  deliver  an  address  expressly  designed  to 
vindicate  the  above  leading  features.  A  genuinely  novel  element  was,  how- 
ever, presented  in  the  addition  of  certain  provisions  materially  modifying  the 
ordinary  curriculum  for  the  degrees  of  B.A.  and  M.A.  Students  were  in  the 
future  to  be  required  not  simply  to  attend  lectures,  but  also  to  pass  examina- 
tions in  the  subjects  on  which  they  were  lectured.  In  the  B.A.  course  such 
subjects  were  to  include  grammar,  rhetoric,  Aristotle's  Ethics,  Politics,  and 
Economics,  logic,  moral  philosophy,  geometry  and  Greek.  In  the  M.A.  course, 
there  was  more  geometry,  and  more  Greek,  together  with  astronomy,  meta- 
physics, natural  philosophy  and  Hebrew." 

Note  also  the  following  specimen  of  a  college  curriculum  at  Oxford  in  1624 
It  has  no  reference  to  any  university  schools,  and  was  fixed  by  statute  of  Pem- 
broke College  in  1624.  It  consisted  of  the  following:  (i)  A  Catechetical 
lecture,  delivering  the  sum  and  foundation  of  the  Christian  religion.  All 
Bachelors  of  Arts  and  non-graduates  were  bound  to  attend,  the  students  of 
higher  grade  were  invited  to  do  so.  (2)  A  Natural  Philosophy  lecture  and 
disputations.  (3)  A  Logic  lecture.  (4)  A  Rhetoric  lecture.  (5)  A  Greek 
lecture.  Theological  disputations  every  other  Thursday,  and  disputations  in 
Philosophy  every  Saturday.     Public  declamations  by  all  non-graduates  and 


98         Training  of  the  Protestant  Ministry 


one  went  on  with  this  study,  he  had  to  submit  to  the  follow- 
ing requirements,  at  least  in  the  university  of  Oxford : 

For  the  degree  of  B.D.  he  must  have  already  been  M.A.  of 
seven  years'  standing,  which  years  were  to  have  been  spent  in 
attendance  upon  the  lectures  of  the  professor,  and  participate 
in  the  "terminal  lectures"  in  theology  when  called  upon,  and  in 
the  disputations  "pro  forma"  in  the  theological  school,  in  one  as 
respondent,  in  the  other  as  proponent,  notice  of  the  questions 
having  been  posted  fourteen  or  fifteen  days  beforehand. 

Afterwards,  and  within  a  year  from  admission  to  the  degree  of 
B.D.,  there  was  required  a  sermon  in  Latin  ("concio  ad 
clerum"),  to  be  delivered  within  the  university. '  Of  similar 
requirements  for  this  degree  at  Cambridge  at  a  later  period, 
Mullinger  says : 

The  statutable  requirements  {i.  e.,  the  Elizabethan)  in  short 
were  so  onerous  that  the  compilers  of  the  code  had  deemed  it 
expedient  to  limit  those  for  the  doctorate  to  the  payment  of 
a  fee  and  to  the  propounding  and  determining  that  single  qucestio 
in  the  schools,  which  has  since  given  place  to  the  "  Dissertation."^ 

As  to  the  enforcement  of  the  requirements  for  degrees, 
there  is  record  of  many  suspensions  and  dispensations;  and 
there  is  reason  to  believe  that  the  degrees  did  not  always 
signify  the  attainment  which  their  possession  would  imply. 
But,  on  the  contrary,  the  exceptions  were  supposed  to  be 
made  for  cause,  and  the  special  reasons  for  each  case  were 
duly  presented  and  recorded.^     And  there  is  evidence  that 

commoners  in  hall  every  Saturday,  and  all  graduates  were  to  exhibit  their 
themes  or  exercises.  "  History  of  Pembroke  College,"  in  Publications  of  the 
Oxford  Historical  Society,  vol.  xxxiii,  pp.  188-189. 

'  The  Register  of  the  University  of  Oxford,  vol.  ii,  part  i,  pp.,  132,  136. 

^  Mullinger,  op.  cit.,  vol.  iii,  pp.  386,  387. 

3  Dispensations  shortening  the  time  for  the  B.A.  degree  were  granted  for 
certain  specified  reasons:  among  these  were  "  that  the  student  might  be  able  to 
take  Holy  Orders  sooner  or  more  conveniently";  e.g.,  Mar.  5,  1573-4,  William 


Training  of  the  Protestant  Ministry         99 


there  was  excellent  work  done  by  the  students  of  this  period. 
This  evidence  consists  not  only  of  the  ability  displayed,  and 
the  success  attained,  by  graduates  in  their  subsequent 
careers,  but  also  of  recorded  instances  of  hard  study  in 
the  universities,  even  to  the  point  of  injury  to  physical 
health. ' 

The  universities  had  the  right  to  issue  licenses  to  preach. 
At  Oxford  it  was  granted  by  the  congregation  upon  "sup- 
plication" by  the  candidate,  upon  the  following  require- 
ments. It  was  to  be  asked  for  in  congregation,  and  the 
request  was  to  be  published  in  the  next  convocation,  and 
leave  obtained  to  affix  the  seal  of  the  university.  The 
applicant  must  already  have  received  the  M.A.  degree, 
and  have  disputed  in  theology  at  least  once,  either  in  the 
theological  school,  or  in  the  comitia,  and  have  preached  at 
least  four  times  in  Christ  Church,  St.  Mary's,  or  (during 
Lent)  in  St.  Peter's,  and  in  All  Souls',  preferably  in 
Latin.  ^ 

Graduation  at  Oxford  or  Cambridge  was  not  a  pre- 
requisite to  ordination  in  the  Church  of  England.  The 
Canons  of  1603-4  (c.  34)  set  up  as  a  minimum  requirement 
the  ability  of  the  candidate  to  give  an  account  of  his  faith 
in  Latin  according  to  the  Thirty-nine  Articles,  and  to  prove 
the  same  out  of  Holy  Scripture.  ^ 

Dain  was  allowed  six  Terms,  and  Nov.  25,  1575,  Richard  Wignall,  two  years, 
for  this  reason:  also, '  'to  make  students  capable  of  holding  a  promised  benefice"; 
e.g.,  July  4,  1 58 1,  Marmaduke  Blaxten  was  allowed  one  year  on  this  account: 
and  also  that  "the  student  is  in  Holy  Orders  and  is  going  down  to  take  duty"; 
e.g.,  the  case  of  Thomas  Warburton,  a  Presbyter,  who  was  allowed  one  year, 
Mar.  7,  1575-6.  For  these  and  other  instances  and  reasons,  see  The  Register 
of  the  University  of  Oxford,  vol.  ii,  part  i,  p.  17.  Similar  dispensations  were 
granted  for  the  M.  A.  also;  see,  ibid.,  p.  18. 

'  The  History  of  Brasenose  College,  ut  sup.,  vol.  ii,  part  i,  xi,  p.  22. 

'  The  Register  of  the  University  of  Oxford,  vol.  ii,  part  i,  p.  131. 

3  E.  Gibson,  Codex  juris  ecclesiastici  Anglicani,  second  revised  edition, 
Oxford,  1761,  i,  p.  146.  On  the  sources  for  this  canon  see  R.  G.  Usher,  The 
Reconstruction  of  the  English  Church,  ii,  New  York,  1910,  p.  277. 


100       Training  of  the  Protestant  Ministry 


(d)  At  Harvard 

Since  we  have  found  that  Harvard,  the  only  American 
institution  professing  to  offer  a  higher  education  in  this 
period,  was  even  before  the  middle  of  the  century  a  potent 
factor  in  the  training  of  the  ministry  of  America,  it  is  proper 
to  present  at  this  point  its  requirements  and  advantages.  ^ 

For  admission,  there  was  required  ability  to  read  Cicero, 
or  some  similar  classical  author,  ex  tempore,  and  to  make 
and  speak  true  Latin  in  verse  and  prose,  and  to  decline 
perfectly  the  paradigms  of  nouns  and  verbs  in  Greek. 
Within  the  institution,  scholars  were  required  to  read  the 
Scriptures  twice  each  day,  and  to  be  "ready  to  give  an 
account  of  their  proficiency  therein,  both  in  theoretical  ob- 
servations of  language  and  logic,  and  in  practical  and  spirit- 
ual truths,"  as  their  tutor  might  require.  It  was  further 
ordered  that  "All  Sophisters  and  Bachelors  (until  them- 
selves shall  make  commonplace)  shall  publicly  repeat  ser- 
mons in  the  Hall,  whenever  they  are  called  forth."  Ability 
to  read  the  originals  of  the  Old  and  the  New  Testaments 
into  Latin  and  resolve  them  logically,  accompanied  by  a 
good  standing  as  to  conduct,  enabled  the  student  to  obtain 
his  first  degree. 

A  written  summary  of  logic,  natural  and  moral  philosophy, 
arithmetic,  geometry,  and  astronomy,  ability  "to  defend  his 
theses,"  and  skill  in  the  "originals,"  entitled  him  to  "the 
second  degree  of  Master  of  Arts."  Latin  was  the  ordinary 
language  of  the  institution. 

Such  were  the  regulations  of  1644.  To  these,  in  1650, 
were  added  the  following : 

Henceforth  there  shall  be  three  weeks  of  visitation  yearly — 
wherein  from  nine  o'clock  to  eleven  in  the  forenoon,  and  from 
one  to  three  in  the  afternoon,  of  the  second  day  of  the  week,  all 

I  See  Quincy,  J.,  History  of  Harvard  College,  pp.  190-191,  and  Appendices 
xxvii  and  xxviii. 


Training  of  the  Protestant  Ministry       loi 


scholars  of  two  years'  standing  and  upwards,  shall  sit  in  the  Hall 
to  be  examined  by  all  comers,  in  the  Latin,  Greek,  and  Hebrew 
tongues,  and  in  Rhetoric,  Logic,  and  Physics;  and  they  that 
expect  to  proceed  Bachelors  that  year,  to  be  examined  of  their 
sufficiency  according  to  the  laws  of  the  college;  and  such  that 
expect  to  proceed  Masters  of  Arts,  to  exhibit  their  synopsis  of 
acts  required  by  the  laws  of  the  college. 

The  studies  in  the  first  year  were  logic,  physics,  etymol- 
ogy, syntax,  and  practice  of  the  principles  of  grammar;  in 
the  second  year,  ethics,  politics,  prosody,  dialectics,  practice 
of  poesy,  and  Chaldee;  in  the  third,  arithmetic,  geometry, 
astronomy,  exercises  in  style,  composition,  epitome,  both 
in  prose  and  verse,  Hebrew  and  Syriac.  Every  week  every 
class  was  practised  in  the  Bible  and  catechetical  divinity. 
History  was  taught  in  the  winter  and  the  nature  of  plants 
in  the  summer.  Rhetoric  was  taught  by  lectures  in  every 
year,  and  each  student  was  required  to  declaim  once  a 
month. 

(e)   The  English  Universities  and  Harvard  College  Compared 

In  comparing  the  curriculum  and  method  of  Harvard 
with  those  of  the  English  universities  of  the  time,  it  is  to  be 
remembered  that  the  former  were  in  large  measure  modeled 
after,  and  copied  from,  the  latter.  ^     This  appears  to  be  the 

'  "  ...  it  should  be  borne  in  mind  that  Harvard,  so  far  as  the  course  of 
study  is  concerned,  simply  adopted  the  contemporaneous  practice  of  the  Eng- 
lish universities.  ..."  Simpson,  Samuel,  "Early  Ministerial  Training  in 
America,"  {Papers  of  the  American  Society  of  Church  History,  Second  Series, 
vol.  ii,   p.  123). 

MuUinger,  op.  cit.,  vol.  iii,  p.  266:  "Nor  is  it  less  clear  that  those  who 
carried  on  the  work  [of  the  American  colleges],  although  they  affected  to  con- 
sider the  condition  of  both  the  English  universities  deplorable,  still  retained, 
for  the  most  part,  the  traditions  of  their  past  academic  life  and  the  methods  of 
their  former  teachers."  It  is  hard  to  understand  the  remark  of  MuUinger 
(op.  cit.,  vol.  iii,  p.  195)  to  the  effect  that  grammar  was  not  a  part  of  the  course 
at  Harvard,  unless  he  makes  a  distinction  between  that  study  and  "practice 
and  principles  of  grammar."     See  Quincy,  History  of  Harvard,  vol.  i,  p.  191. 


102       Training  of  the  Protestant  Ministry 


general  agreement  of  those  who  have  made  the  matter  a 
subject  of  special  study.     The  length  of  term,  at  least  for 
the  degree  of  Bachelor  of  Arts,  was  the  same  as  at  Cambridge 
and  Oxford.     The  colloquial  use  of  Latin,  prescribed  at  Har- 
vard, was  in  accord  with  the  earlier  practice  of  the  English 
institutions  and  the  reform  instituted  by  Laud  as  Chancellor 
of  Oxford.     The  general  range  of  the  studies  was  also  the 
same.     The  practice  of  examinations  was  also  a  Laudian 
idea  carried  over  from  the  English  practice  which  he  had 
originated.     The    requirement    at    Harvard    of    Hebrew, 
Chaldee,  and  Syriac,  as  well  as  the  thorough  study  of  the 
Scriptures  in  the  original  languages  and  in  English,  and 
the  practice  of  public  speaking  and  sermonizing, '  together 
with  the  emphasis   upon   catechetical   divinity,   might   be 
explained  by  the  fact  that,  however  extensive  and  general 
the  original  design  and  purpose  of  the  college,  the  actual 
practice  in  this  early  period  was  to  conduct  it  chiefly  as 
a  school  for  the  training  of  candidates  for  the  ministry.^ 
But  even  some  of  these  apparently  distinctive  features  are 
to  be  found  in  the  contemporary  practice  of  the  English 
institutions.     The  practice  of  "common  place,  "■'  a  regular 
part  of  the  English  training,  was  essentially  an  exercise  in 
sermonizing.     Public  declamation  was  also  practised  in  the 
English  schools,  and  Hebrew  was  at  least  available,  and 
sometimes  required,  in  them.     And  the  chief  interest  in  the 
English  universities  at  this  time  was,  as  has  been  stated, 
in  the  study  of  theology.     The  method  of  instruction  by 

'  But  see  the  latter  part  of  note  i  on  page  97. 

*  "It  was  with  reference  first  of  all  to  the  suitable  training  of  ministers  that 
the  courses  at  Harvard  were  arranged:  from  which  it  follows  naturally  that 
Harvard  College  at  the  time  of  its  founding,  and  for  many  years  thereafter, 
was  in  aim  and  essence  more  a  theological  seminary  than  a  college  of  liberal 
arts"  (Samuel  Simpson,  op.  cit.,  p.  121). 

3  The  definition  of  "commonplace"  is  quoted  by  MuUinger  from  Clarke's 
Lives  as  follows:  "'a  college  exercise  in  divinity,  not  different  in  form  from  a 
sermon,  but  in  length.' "    (Mullinger,  op.  cit.,  vol.  iii,  p.  414,  note  2). 


Training  of  the  Protestant  Ministry       103 


tutors  was  also  borrowed  from  the  English  practice.  In 
considering  the  attainments  and  abilities  of  those  ministers 
who  were  among  the  first  to  be  trained  at  Harvard,  it  was 
noticed  that  certain  of  them  proved  to  be  acceptable 
ministers  in  England.'  And  the  careers  of  the  Harvard 
graduates,  who  by  reason  of  the  places  of  their  labor, 
came  into  direct  and  necessary  comparison  with  ministers 
of  English  university  training,  certainly  give  no  ground  for 
any  inference  that  they  labored  under  any  handicap  because 
of  their  American  education.  At  the  same  time  there 
were,  of  course,  certain  advantages  possessed  by  the  English 
institutions.  Their  age,  the  large  number  of  students,  the 
atmosphere  of  culture,  the  presence  of  distinguished  scholars 
among  instructors  and  students,  and  the  large  libraries 
naturally  made  them  in  these  respects  superior  to  any 
young  and  poor  institution  such  as  Harvard  was  at  that 
time.  Besides  this,  there  seems  to  have  occurred  a  period 
of  something  like  decline  in  the  life  of  Harvard,  toward  the 
end  of  the  seventeenth  century.  The  melancholy  testi- 
mony of  Increase  Mather  seems  to  justify  the  inference  that 
this  was  not  confined  to  the  material  interests  and  adminis- 
trative features  of  the  college. '    But  even  so,  it  is  clear  that 

'  ".  .  .  as  good  instruction  was  afforded  here  as  at  the  first  schools  in  the 
old  world."  (Peirce,  History  of  Harvard  College,  p.  8.)  Peirce  speaks  of  the 
first  graduating  class,  "...  nine  young  gentlemen  .  .  .  who  proved  them- 
selves not  unworthy  of  that  distinction,  by  the  respectability  and  eminence  to 
which  they  afterwards  attained  both  in  this  country  and  in  Europe."  {Ibid., 
p.  9).  "Some  gentlemen  have  sent  their  sons  hither  from  England,  ...  as 
the  judicious  and  godly  Doctor  Ames,  and  divers  others"  (Johnson's  Wonder- 
working Providence,  quoted  in  Peirce,  op.  cit.,  App.  p.  21). 

'  Increase  Mather,  President  of  Harvard,  1685-1701  (for  this  period  Dex- 
ter, History  of  Education  in  the  U.  S.,  p.  230,  says  that  the  president  was 
Cotton  Mather;  an  error,  the  obviousness  of  which  almost  neutralizes  it),  in  a 
letter  to  Lieut.-Gov.  Stoughton,  Dec.  16,  1698  wrote:  "Should  I  leave  preach- 
ing to  one  thousand  five  hundred  souls  (for  I  suppose  that  so  many  use  or- 
dinarily to  attend  our  congregation) ,  only  to  expovmd  to  forty  or  fifty  children, 
few  of  them  capable  of  edification  by  such  exercises,  I  doubt  I  should  not  do 
well."     (Quincy,  op.  cit,,  vol.  i,  p.  499,  App.) 


104       Training  of  the  Protestant  Ministry 


Mather  was  just  then  inclined,  because  of  certain  circum- 
stances, to  make  the  most  of  all  discouraging  facts.  And 
at  that  very  time,  even,  the  college  was  training  and  sending 
out  from  among  the  "children,"  to  whom  he  so  disparagingly 
refers,  men  who  probably  compare  favorably  with  any 
other  body  of  Harvard  graduates. ' 

(/ )     Post-graduate  Study  for  the  Ministry 

But  there  is  to  be  considered  another,  and  an  important, 
element  in  the  training  of  the  Protestant  ministry  of  America 
in  this  period  It  is  the  practice  of  post-graduate  study  in 
immediate  preparation  for  the  ministry.  Mere  graduation 
at  college  did  not  in  itself  qualify  the  candidate,  even  aca- 
demically, for  immediate  ordination.  ^  And,  whatever  may 
have  been  the  number  of  exceptions,  it  was,  in  this  earlier 
period,  the  custom  among  the  Congregationalists  of  America 
for  the  graduate  intending  to  study  for  the  ministry  to 
return  to  Harvard  for  two  years,  more  or  less,  of  study  in 
"Divinity."  Among  the  Episcopalians  there  was  also  the 
practice  of  "reading  for  orders";  apparently  in  a  way 
supplemental  to  the  college  study. 

Throughout  the  study  of  this  period  it  should  be  borne 

'  Among  those  graduated  at  Harvard  from  1697-1701  were:  Hugh  Adams, 
Ames  Angier,  Jno.  Barnard,  Jonathan  Belcher,  Richard  Billings,  Dudley  Brad- 
street,  Simon  Bradstreet,  Robert  Breck,  Jno.  BuMey,  Samuel  Burr,  Josiah 
Cotton,  Theophilus  Cotton,  Peter  Cutler,  Timothy  Cutler,  Jeremiah  Dummer, 
Nathaniel  Hubbard,  Israel  Loring,  Samuel  Mather,  Samuel  Moody,  Joseph 
Parsons,  Josiah  Willard,  Oxenbridge  Thacher,  besides  several  others.  {Quin- 
quennial Catalogue  of  the  Officers  and  Graduates  of  Harvard  University,  1636- 
IQ15,  Cambridge,  1915,  p.  123.) 

'  Simpson,  op.  cit.,  p.  125.  It  is  also  to  be  observed  that  in  the  case  of 
certain  students  for  the  ministry  the  whole  course,  from  the  entrance  to  college, 
and  sometimes  even  before,  had  been  pursued  with  a  direct  view  to  the  minis- 
try, and  had  been  constantly  supplemented  by  studies  and  work  of  a  kind 
especially  related  to  it ;  the  early  entrance  of  such  students  upon  their  work  as 
ministers  does  not,  therefore,  constitute  a  real  exception  to  the  rule. 


Training  of  the  Protestant  Ministry       105 


in  mind  that  among  the  ecclesiastical  bodies  of  English 
derivation  there  was  not  that  sense  of  separateness  between 
the  English  and  American  institutions  of  all  sorts  which 
has  developed  with  the  expanding  life  of  the  newer  country, 
and  the  political  separation  from  England.  The  American 
Episcopalians  were  at  this  time  merely  a  part  of  an  English 
diocese.^  And  there  seems  to  have  been  the  strongest 
kind  of  feeling  of  community  of  life  and  identity  of  ecclesiasti- 
cal fellowship  between  the  Congregationalists  of  the  tw^o 
countries.  And  among  the  Dutch  the  condition  was  simply 
that  the  American  candidates  could  receive  ordination 
only  in  Holland.^  There  must  have  been,  therefore,  a 
common  ideal  on  both  sides  of  the  Atlantic  as  to  the  training 
of  the  ministry.  Indeed,  it  was  only  in  New  England  that 
there  was  as  yet  any  attempt  to  undertake  a  native  Ameri- 
can training  for  this  office.  And  this,  as  has  been  shown, 
was  largely  patterned  after  the  plan  in  operation  in  the 
mother  country,  and  accepted  in  the  latter  without  question. 

5.    The  Closing  Years  of  the  Seventeenth  Century 

There  are  certain  features  of  the  church  life  in  America 
in  the  latter  portion  of  the  seventeenth  century — roughly 
speaking,  the  last  quarter  of  it — that  are  not  without  their 
import  for  the  subject  of  this  study. 

(a)    The  First  Purely  Native  Ministry 

These  features  have  as  a  common  characteristic  the 
manifestation  of  a  growing  independence  of  the  mother 

'  Not  formally  nor  legally,  but  practically;  see  American  Church  History 
Series,  vol.  vii,  pp.  23,  27. 

'  The  Classis  of  Amsterdam  was  the  administrative  body  most  influential 
in  ordaining  and  sending  out  ministers  to  the  colonies.  Its  Deputati  ad  res 
exteras  were  practically  a  foreign  mission  board.  They  drew  up  elaborate  regu  - 
lations,  but  did  not  secure  the  monopoly  of  the  right  to  ordain  men  for  the 
colonies  {Ecclesiastical  Records,  i,  p.  89  ff.;  p.  125  f.). 


io6       Training  of  the  Protestant  Ministry 


church.     Or,  more  precisely,  this  period  contains  the  visible 
beginnings  of  a  tendency  toward  such  an  independence. 

(i)  Among  the  Episcopalians,  the  coming  of  the  Rev. 
James  Blair  as  the  first  commissary  of  the  Bishop  of  London 
made  possible  the  local  exercise  of  the  episcopal  power  in 
a  way  not  known  before. 

(2)  A  little  before  this  among  the  Dutch  there  had 
occurred  the  first  slight  attempt  at  local  autonomy,'  but 
none  at  local  training  for  their  candidates. 

(3)  In  New  England,  a  new  era  was  already  begun. 
For,  by  the  close  of  the  century,  and  indeed  long  before,  this 
section  had  a  fully  developed  native-born  and  native- 
trained  American  ministry,  the  first  purely  American  minis- 
try ever  developed.  Already,  therefore,  there  was  beginning 
to  be  an  American  type  of  minister,  not  only  in  birth  and 
breeding,  but  also  in  education. 

{b)     The  Founding  of  William  and  Mary  College 

Growing  directly  out  of  one  of  the  above-noted  cir- 
cumstances was  an  event  that  was  intended  to  extend  the 
same  tendency  that  had  reached  such  a  great  degree  of 
development  in  New  England.  It  was  the  founding  of 
the  College  of  William  and  Mary  in  Virginia,  by  Commissary 
Blair.  The  motive  for  the  founding  of  this  institution  is 
shown  by  the  petition  of  May  20,  1691,  addressed  by  the 
General  Assembly  of  Virginia  to  the  King  and  Queen, 
which  declared  that  there  was  need  in  the  colony  for  an 
opportunity  for  the  liberal  education  of  its  youth,  and  also 
to  afford  means  of  securing  promptly  pious  and  learned 
clergymen    for    the    vacant    parishes.     The    instructions^ 

'  It  is  the  ordination  of  Peter  Tesschenmaeker,  a  yoimg  licensed  bachelor 
of  divinity  of  the  University  of  Utrecht  (American  Church  History  Series,  vol. 
viii,  p.  74). 

'Bruce,  op.  cit.,  vol.  i,  p.  385;  Heatwole,  C,  A  History  of  Education  in 
Virginia,  p.  70:  "As  early  as  1660  an  act  of  the  General  Assembly  runs — 


Training  of  the  Protestant  Ministry       107 


formulated  by  the  Assembly  defined  the  mission  of  Blair 
to  England  in  behalf  of  the  proposed  college  as  one  to  secure 
a  charter  for  a  free  school  and  college,  in  which  Latin, 
Greek,  philosophy,  mathematics,  and  divinity  should  be 
taught.  Nothing  in  the  college  was  to  be  ordained  contrary 
to  the  canons  of  the  Anglican  Church.  The  implication  of 
the  whole  plan,  in  so  far  as  it  was  related  to  the  training  of 
the  ministry,  is  that  it  was  to  facilitate  the  development 
of  native  reinforcements. 

The  original  charter  of  the  institution  provided  for  a 
grammar  school,  in  which  were  to  be  taught  Latin  and 
Greek;  a  school  of  philosophy  and  mathematics;  and  one 
of  divinity  and  the  oriental  languages.  Of  the  five  chairs 
called  for  by  the  charter,  two  were  for  divinity. " 

Though  the  charter  was  granted  in  1693,  and  the  work 
of  the  grammar  school  begun  in  1697,  the  further  develop- 
ment of  the  college  was  very  slow.  Ten  years  after  its 
foundation  it  was  still  without  the  professorships  originally 
intended.^  But  its  work  was  begun,  and  was  destined  to 
have  its  effect  later  on,  not  only  on  the  education  of  the 
community  in  general,  but  on  that  of  candidates  for  orders 
as  well.  ^    At  the  very  least,  the  establishment  of  the  school 

'that,  for  the  advance  of  learning,  education  of  youth,  supply  of  ministry,  and 
the  promotion  of  piety  there  be  land  taken  upon  purchases  for  a  college  and 
free  school'.  ..." 

'  Bruce,  op.  cit.,  vol.  i,  p.  398. 

'  Ibid.  In  1699  Professor  Inglis,  of  the  College,  complained  "that  it  still 
retained  a  mere  grammar  school  without  these  professorships  of  Philosophy, 
Physics,  Mathematics,  and  Divinity,  which  had  been  originally  intended." 

3  Meade,  W.,  Old  Churches,  Ministers  and  Families  of  Virginia,  vol.  i,  p. 
167  :  "All  the  letters  of  Governor  Gooch  and  Commissary  Dawson  [Blair's 
successor]  to  the  Bishop  of  London  show  them  to  be  truly  anxious  to  promote 
the  best  interests  of  the  colony.  .  .  .  One  thing  is  set  forth  in  praise  of 
William  and  Mary  College  .  .  .  viz. :  that  the  hopes  and  designs  of  its  founders 
and  early  benefactors  in  relation  to  its  being  a  nursery  of  pious  ministers,  were 
not  entirely  disappointed.  It  is  positively  affirmed  by  those  most  competent 
to  speak,  that  the  best  ministers  in  Virginia  were  those  educated  at  the  College 
and  sent  over  to  England  for  ordination." 


io8       Training  of  the  Protestant  Ministry 


is  significant,  especially  for  this  discussion,  as  an  illustration 
of  the  spirit  that  was  becoming  more  and  more  charactertistic 
of  the  period,  and  as  a  manifestation  of  it  within  an  ecclesias- 
tical organization  that  rejoiced  in  being  a  corporate  part  of 
the  Church  of  England.  And  especially  is  it  to  be  noticed 
in  this  connection  that  this  manifestation  of  a  spirit  which 
tended  to  develop  local  control  of  local  affairs  in  the  colonies 
appears  particularly  in  connection  with  the  training  of  the 
ministry. 

(c)  The  Anglican  Ideal :  DodwelVs  Letters 

Since,  however,  the  Anglican  churches  did  actually 
continue  throughout  this  period  to  depend  practically  for 
all  their  clergymen  on  England  and  the  English  Church, 
and  the  practice  in  the  Established  Church  was  the  one 
that  determined  at  least  the  general  form  of  the  training 
actually  received  by  their  ministers,  it  is,  perhaps,  well  to 
consider  what  was  the  accepted  ideal  of  the  preparation 
proper  for  the  candidate  for  orders  in  the  English  Church 
of  the  time.  That  is,  we  now  seek  to  discover  what,  in 
addition  to  a  university  course,  was  the  special  immediate 
preparation  for  "orders"  in  the  Anglican  Church. 

In  1672  Henry  Dodwell,  M.A.  and  Fellow  of  Trinity 
College,  Dublin,  published  his  Two  Letters  of  Advice.  In 
the  preface  he  emphasizes  the  disrespect  into  which  the 
clergy  of  the  Established  Church  at  that  time  had  fallen, 
and  alleges  it  as  the  reason  for  the  Letters.  He  announces 
that  he  has  especially  in  view  the  criticisms  of  the  ' '  Separa- 
tists" against  the  clergy  of  the  Establishment,  and  that  his 
object  is  to  meet  these  not  by  defending,  but  by  correcting, 
the  defects  of  the  clergy,  which  he  admits  and  laments  as 
existing  at  least  in  a  sufficient  number  of  instances  in  the 
Church  in  Ireland  to  justify  special  attention.  While  he 
indeed  mentions  as  the  ground  of  the  Separatist  criticism, 
"negligence  of  life  and  unserious  way  of  preaching,"  yet  it 


Training  of  the  Protestant  Ministry       109 


will  be  observed  that  in  this  suggested  method  of  meeting 
these  criticisms,  he  proposes  to  remove  the  ground  for  them 
by  prescribing  at  length  a  system  of  preparatory  study,  in 
addition  to  his  earnest  exhortation  to  a  proper  mode  of  life 
on  the  part  of  the  clergy. ' 

In  the  "Epistle  Dedicatory,"  preceding  the  Letters 
and  addressed  to  the  Primate  of  the  Irish  Church,  he  says 
that,  so  far  as  he  knows,  no  similar  attempt  up  to  that  time 
had  been  made.  ^ 

The  first  of  the  Letters  is  intended  for  the  undergraduate 
looking  to  orders.^  The  course  of  reading  suggested  is 
intended  with  special  reference  to  the  student's  future  work 
as  a  minister,  and  seems  designed  to  supplement  his  regular 
work  in  the  university  courses.  The  author  insists  (i)  on 
the  necessity  of  acquaintance  with  the  original  languages 
and  texts  of  the  Scriptures,  naming  Greek  as  "that  which 
can  with  less  security  be  neglected, "  and  (2)  on  a  knowledge 
of  Jewish  antiquities,  which  he  describes  as 

very  necessary  for  clearing  some  things  of  so  momentous  a  con- 
sideration, and  so  ordinary  practice,  as  that  you  may  not  be 
able  without  them,  to  give  a  full  satisfaction  to  your  parochial 
cure,  in  doubts  that  may  nearly  concern  them,  which  will  there- 
fore require  a  skill  in  Rabbins,  if  not  in  the  Hebrew  Tongue 
wherein  they  were  written. 

He  advises  (3)  a  study  of  the  "Fathers  of  the  first  and 
purest  centuries,  especially  those  that  are,  by  the  consent 
of  all,  concluded  genuine,  and  that  lived  before  the  Empire 
turned  Christian  .  ,  .  ."  This  is  urged  with  the  interest- 
ing suggestion  that  it  is  necessary  to  interpret  Scripture  in 
the  "Historical  Way."^  (4)  Skill  in  the  controversies  is 
named  as  the  next  requisite;  that  is,  skill  in  those  that 
"separate   any   considerable   Communions   of   Christians." 

'  Op.  cit.,  pp.  2,  10,  II,  17.  "  Ibid.,  page  5. 

3  Title  of  Letter  /,  p.  i.  ■'  Ibid.,  p.  45. 


no       Training  of  the  Protestant  Ministry 


He  writes  (5),  "that  which  you  can  least  of  all  want,  is  a 
study  too  much  neglected,  because  too  little  experienced 
among  Protestants,  that  of  Casuistical  Divinity."^ 

Letter  II  is  intended  principally  for  a  graduate,  "pre- 
sumed to  have  read  over  his  course  already  once."^  In 
it  the  author  recommends  "that  too  much  decried  study 
among  Protestants  of  School  Divinity."  Chaldee  and 
Syriac  are  prescribed  in  addition  to  Hebrew.  ' '  Antiquities ' ' 
are  here  considered  as  including  "the  Ceremonies  of  the 
Chaldasan  and  Phoenician  Idolatry,"  though  he  is  of  the 
opinion  that  "there  are  no  very  great  assistances  for  it  in 
our  now  extant  writers."  Knowledge  of  the  "first  Haery- 
ses"  is  also  considered  advisable.  Other  subjects  suggested 
are  "Natural  Divinity,"  "Natural  Philosophy, "  and  "Meta- 
physicks."  "The  nature  of  the  Soul,  and  of  its  operations" 
should  be  studied,  "first  Physically  as  they  are  handled  in 
Aristotle's  books  de  Anima;  and  this  especially  the  rational 
and  intellectual  degree — and  then  Morally  in  Ethics." 
"For  Controversial  Logick"  he  mentions  "nothing,"  be- 
cause he  believes,  as  he  states,  that  "there  is  little  in  it 
necessary  to  your  purpose  but  is  borrowed  from  Meta- 
physicks"  ....  The  Rabbins  and  Philo  and  Josephus 
are  recommended  "for  the  Historical  Relation  of  those  opin- 
ions and  practices  that  afterwards  prevailed,  and  are  fre- 
quently alluded  to  in  the  New  Testament."  He  writes  also 
that  he  conceives  "it  convenient  to  read  the  ancient  Greek 
Poets  together  with  their  Greek  Scholiasts,  and  that  you  do 
not  look  on  them  as  idle  Romances,  but  as  grave  Philoso- 
phers and  Historians;  for  such  they  were  reputed  not  only 
in  their  own  times,  but  also  by  all  their  followers,  as  involv- 
ing Divine,  and  Natural,  and  Historical  notions  of  their  Gods 
and  Heroes  under  physical  and  Parabolical  expressions." 

It  is  interesting  to  note  that  he  advises  also  the  study  of 
Greek  origins,  that  is,   "with  what  other  learned  nations 
'  Page  58.  '  Page  202. 


Training  of  the  Protestant  Ministry       iii 


they  had  commerce,  from  which  they  might  probably  derive 
their  Philosophical  and  Theological  learning." 

It  is  his  opinion  that  "much  assistance"  in  under- 
standing the  religious  rites  of  the  Egyptians,  may  be  derived 
"from  the  Aegyptian  Hieroglyphicks  (though  that  also  be 
thought  by  many  unprofitable  learning)."  An  acquaint- 
ance with  the  "Theory  of  the  ancient  Magick"  was,  by 
this  author,  deemed  advisable,  and  he  thought  a  knowledge 
of  "Coptite  or  ancient  Aegyptiack"  useful  in  interpreting 
prophecy.  ^ 

Under  the  various  subjects  of  study  considered  there 
are  suggested  and  discussed,  in  the  case  of  each,  various  text- 
books in  which  they  might  be  studied.  The  work  closes 
with  a  list  of  books  specially  recommended.  ^ 

The  author  explains  at  the  outset  that  he  is  attempting 
to  meet  the  needs  of  a  beginner  and  does  not  wish  to  dis- 
courage by  prescribing  too  extensive  a  course.^  It  should 
be  noted  that  he  decidedly  disapproves  of,  and  warns  against, 
the  study  of  "School  Divinity"  by  the  " Peripatetick " 
method,  which  he  judges  to  be  too  much  the  practice  of  his 
time. -^ 

Here,  then,  we  have  the  expression  of  at  least  the  ideal 
entertained  by  an  earnest  member  of  the  Established  Church 
in  Ireland  as  to  the  kind  of  training  (and  certain  of  its 
specific  items)  proper  to  the  clergy,  accompanied  by  the 
confession  that  his  ideal  was  by  no  means  sufficiently  realized 
in  the  actual  practice  at  least  of  the  Church  of  which  he 
was  a  member.  It  is  worth  while  to  note  that  the  publica- 
tion has  the  approval  of  the  Irish  Primate.  It  is  clear  that 
fundamentally,  and  in  certain  specific  features,  it  is  virtually 
identical  with  the  course  prescribed  and  in  actual  use  as  the 
preparation  for  the  ministry  offered  by  Harvard  at  the  time 

'  Two  Letters  of  Advice,  etc.,  p.  259. 

*  There  is  also  a  list  appended  to  Letter  I. 

»  See  the  Preface.  *  Ibid. 


112       Training  of  the  Protestant  Ministry 


and  for  years  before.     The  suggestion  as  to  Chaldee  and 
Syriac  is  especially  noticeable. 

{d)     A  New  Element :   The  Presbyterians 

The  latter  part  of  the  seventeenth  century  was  marked 
by  the  appearance  of  a  new  element  in  the  ecclesiastical  life 
of  America,  which  was  destined  to  have  a  great  effect  upon 
the  training  of  the  Protestant  ministry  of  the  country. 
This  was  the  Presbyterian  Church.  While  Presbyterians 
and  their  churches,  and  ministers  of  this  order,  had  been 
in  the  country  before  this,  it  was  not  until  the  later  years  of 
the  century  that  this  Church  began  to  be  an  effective  force 
in  the  general  life  of  the  colonies.  Indeed,  it  does  not 
appear  that  there  had  been,  all  told,  more  than  four  Presby- 
terian pastors  in  America  up  to  this  time,  including  among 
them  Doughty  and  Denton,  who  seem  to  have  been  Pres- 
byterian more  in  name  than  in  actual  affiliation.^  At  any 
rate,  counting  all  that  can  be  so  considered,  it  is  recognized 
that  the  first  ministers  of  this  Church  in  America  were  immi- 
grant, and  that  they  were  trained  for  their  work.  Like  that 
of  the  kindred  body,  the  Dutch  Reformed  Church,  its  minis- 
try was  required  by  ecclesiastical  law  to  have  been  previously 
trained  in  academic  and  theological  studies.  The  deter- 
mination of  their  qualifications  in  this,  as  in  other  respects, 
was  also,  as  in  the  Dutch  Church,  vested  in  the  governing 
ecclesiastical  body,  i.e.,  the  Presbytery.  Like  the  Con- 
gregationalists  they  were,  however,  clothed,  at  the  organiza- 
tion of  the  first  Presbytery,  with  full  local  autonomy,  and 
discretion  in  conferring  ordination,  judging  of  the  qualifica- 
tions of  candidates,  and  enforcing  the  educational  require- 
ments. They  had  the  advantages  of  both  the  other  bodies 
with  which  they  are  here  compared,  without  being  depend- 
ent, on  the  one  hand,  on  the  decision  of  a  transatlantic 
authority,  or,  on  the  other,  on  the  possible  variation  of 

'  American  Church  History  Series,  vol.  vi,  p.  15. 


Training  of  the  Protestant  Ministry       113 


popular  demand  and  custom.  This  peculiar  situation 
enabled  them  to  develop  quickly  a  ministry,  both  native 
and  trained  to  a  recognized  standard. ' 

With  the  exception,  however,  of  the  occasional  accessions 
from  the  Congregationalists,  the  ministry  of  the  Presby- 
terians was  for  some  years  necessarily  foreign,  both  in  birth 
and  training.  Of  the  earliest  Presbyterian  ministry,  Dr. 
Archibald  Alexander  has  written : 

The  first  Presbyterian  ministers  in  this  country  were  nearly 
all  men  of  liberal  education.  Some  had  received  their  education 
in  the  universities  of  Scotland;  some  in  Ireland;  and  others  at 
one  of  the  New  England  colleges.  And  though  there  existed 
such  a  destitution  of  ministers  in  this  new  country  they  never 
thought  of  introducing  any  man  into  the  ministry,  who  had  not 
received  a  college  or  university  education;  except  in  very  extra- 
ordinary cases;  of  which,  I  believe,  we  have  but  one  instance  in 
the  early  history  of  the  Presbyterian  church.^ 

Their  influence  in  the  sphere  of  ministerial  education  was  to 
appear  in  the  next  century. 

Francis  Makemie,  from  whose  arrival  in  1683  ecclesiasti- 
cal Presbyterianism  in  America  is  usually  dated,  is  known 
to  have  been  a  man  of  ability,  and  was  already  a  minister 
in  his  native  country.  He  had  been  a  student  of  the  Univer- 
sity of  Glasgow.  Josias  Mackie,^  who  came  in  1692,  dis- 
posed by  his  will  of  a  library,  w^hich  is  described  as  ' '  valuable 
to  an  educated  divine,"  and  contained  "Latin,  Greek, 
Hebrew,  and  English  good  books." 

^Records  of  the  Presbyterian  Church  in  the  United  States  of  America,  pp. 
141,  146,  the  action  of  the  Synod,  May  29,  1738,  and  May  26,  1739. 

^  Biographical  Sketches  of  the  Founder,  and  Principal  Alumni  of  the  Log 
College,  p.  14.  Of  the  period,  1 795-1 841,  Dr.  Charles  Hodge  has  said  {The  His- 
tory of  the  Presbyterian  Church  in  the  United  States  of  America,  pt.  i,  p.  214), 
"The  great  majority  of  our  ministers  were  presbjrterially  educated  and  or- 
dained."    Cf.  Briggs,  C.  A.,  American  Presbyterianism,  App.,  p.  xliv. 

3  Sprague,  Annals,  vol.  iii,  p.  5. 


114       Training  of  the  Protestant  Ministry 


These  seem  to  be  the  Presbjrterian  ministers  of  this 
century  in  America  whose  careers  are  at  present  sufficiently- 
well  known  to  permit  of  positive  statement. 

6.    The  General  Standard  of  the  Time 

(a)    The  Popular  Demand   and  Other  Influences 

The  standard  of  ministerial  qualification  is  determined 
chiefly  by  the  force  of  three  influences.  These  are  ecclesi- 
astical practice,  ecclesiastical  law,  and  popular  demand. ' 
During  the  seventeenth  century  all  three  were  active  in 
America.  At  first,  the  most  potent  were  ecclesiastical 
practice  and  popular  demand.  That  is,  the  scope  of  the 
possible  influence  of  these  was  larger,  in  the  case  of  each, 
than  was  the  scope  of  the  other  factor.  For  the  ministry 
and  the  people,  coming  from  England,  naturally  brought 
with  them  the  ideas  most  prevalent  among  the  Anglicans 
and  Nonconformists  of  that  country;  and  it  was  ecclesiastical 
use  and  wont,  together  with  popular  demand,  that  had 
determined  the  qualifications  of  the  English  ministry  of 
both  sorts.  Throughout  the  period,  the  English  standard 
remained  the  American  standard  for  the  colonies  sprung 
from  England.  In  Virginia,  Anglican  authority  reinforced 
English  custom.  In  New  England,  unhindered  noncon- 
formity seems  to  have  developed  along  the  lines  natural  to 
that  portion  of  the  body  which  had  remained  in  England. 
And  in  both  these  sections  the  popular  demand  was  for 

'  The  realization  of  the  standard  is,  of  course,  conditioned  by  other  things 
such  as  the  economic  ability  of  the  people,  faciUties  for  travel,  climate,  etc. 
But  even  so  potent  a  factor  in  this  as  the  economic  situation  does  not  have 
the  necessary  and  direct  effect  in  determining  the  standard  held.  The  attitude 
exhibited  in  the  past,  at  least,  by  certain  denominations  of  Christians  toward 
the  idea  of  a  trained  ministry  illustrates  this.  For,  with  as  much  facility  of 
every  sort  at  their  disposal  as  other  denominations  they  did  not  by  any  means 
insist  upon  a  high  standard  of  education. 


Training  of  the  Protestant  Ministry       115 


a  "learned,"  as  well  as  a  "godly,"  ministry.  This  is  mani- 
fested in  various  expressions  of  the  popular  sentiment  of 
the  time,  especially  in  connection  with  the  first  suggestions 
as  to  the  establishment  of  schools  of  higher  learning.  ^  In  New 
England  this  popular  sentiment  was  especially  strong,  be- 
cause of  the  average  of  education  among  the  population.^ 
For,  among  Protestants,  the  average  of  popular  education, 
or  at  least  of  appreciation  of  education,  is  directly  related  to, 
and  determines  the  force  and  degree  of,  the  popular  demand 
as  to  the  education  of  the  ministry. 

Popular  demand  was  not,  however,  the  only  influence 
effective  in  New  England  in  determining  the  educational 
qualifications  of  the  ministry  there  in  this  period.  For 
even  during  the  "Puritan  decline,"  which  was  well  under 
way  before  the  period  closed,  and  was  a  decline  in  popular 
education  as  well  as  in  religion  and  morals,  ^  the  records  show 
no  lowering  of  the  standard  of  attainment  for  the  ministry. 
In  zeal,  preaching  power,  and,  possibly,  in  actual  ability,  it 

'  Sup.,  pp.  94  ff.;  Clap,  Thomas,  History  of  Yale  College,  p.  62. 

^  Dexter  {History  of  Edtication  in  the  United  States,  p.  223)  estimates  that 
in  1638  the  average  in  Massachusetts  and  Connecticut  was  one  university 
graduate  to  every  two  hundred  and  fifty  of  the  population.  Compare  Simpson, 
Early  Ministerial  Training  in  America,  p.  116:  "Never  in  the  history  of  the 
country,  in  fact,  has  the  educational  average  of  any  given  community  exceeded 
that  of  Massachusetts  for  the  first  half  century  after  its  settlement." 

Of  Virginia,  Bruce,  op.  cit.,  vol.  i,  p.  442,  says:  "...  there  are  several 
unmistakable  indications  that  a  high  degree  of  culture  prevailed  among  the 
members  of  at  least  a  section  of  the  upper  planting  class."  And,  pp.  442,  443: 
"  It  should  be  remembered  that  a  very  large  number  of  the  citizens  of  Virginia 
during  this  century  were  men  like  Richard  Lee,  the  elder  Nathaniel  Bacon, 
John  Page,  William  Randolph,  the  elder  Robert  Beverley,  William  Fitzhugh, 
and  hundreds  of  others  of  almost  equal  prominence,  who  not  only  had  been 
bom  in  England,  but  had  acquired  in  the  institutions  there  the  learning  that 
would  enable  them  to  read  the  Latin  and  Greek  authors  with  facility."  See 
the  whole  of  chapter  xvii. 

For  the  Dutch  and  the  Presbyterians  see  Thwing,  Charles  F.,  A  History  of 
Higher  Education  in  America. 

3  Walker,  George  Leon,  Some  Aspects  of  the  Religious  Life  of  New  England, 
p.  44. 


ii6       Training  of  the  Protestant  Ministry 


may  have  shared  in  the  general  decay  of  the  time.  But 
its  members  were  still  graduates  of  Harvard  and  students 
of  "Divinity."  Such  was  the  power  of  ecclesiastical  prac- 
tice even  when  the  corresponding  and  supporting  in- 
fluence of  popular  opinion  had,  probably  at  least, 
degenerated  into  a  habit  of  considering  the  minister  as 
naturally  of  superior  education,  and  no  longer  registered  an 
imperative  demand  that  would  be  satisfied  with  nothing 
less. 

Among  the  Dutch,  all  three  of  these  forces  were  operative. 
The  people  themselves  were  educated  and  accustomed  at 
home  to  an  educated  ministry,  which  was  maintained  by  an 
unvarying  ecclesiastical  practice  that  had  been  established, 
and  that  was  enforced  by  ecclesiastical  law.  To  violate  the 
latter  they  had  no  power — if  they  had  desired  to  do  so — 
because  of  their  dependent  relation.  The  Presbyterians 
also  brought  with  them  the  same  three  influences  which 
were  all  operative  in  the  direction  of  a  trained  ministry, 
whatever  may  have  been  the  occasional  lapses  of  opinion, 
or  practice,  or  the  exceptions  allowed  in  the  enforcement  of 
law. 

We  may  say,  then,  that  at  the  close  of  the  seventeenth 
century  there  appears  no  evidence  that  would  justify  a 
conclusion  either  from  the  operation  of  the  forces  which  we 
know  were  active  at  the  time,  or  from  the  records  that  have 
been  preserved,  that  there  had  occurred  up  to  this  time  any 
deliberate  lowering  of  the  standard  of  requirement  of  aca- 
demic training  for  the  ministry  of  Protestants  in  America,  or 
any  lowering  at  all  of  the  educational  standard  in  its  actual 
realization,  except  in  so  far  as  Harvard  College  could  not 
afford  facilities  equal  to  those  of  the  establishments  of  Great 
Britain,  and  in  so  far  as  in  the  case  of  the  Episcopal  clergy 
the  colonial  churches  may  have  suffered  by  the  appointment 
to  them  of  men  inferior  in  attainment  to  the  average  clergy- 
man in  the  Church  in  England. 


Training  of  the  Protestant  Ministry       117 


(b)   Brays  "  Bibliotheca  Parochtalis" 

As  to  the  last  point,  it  is  appropriate  to  adduce  here  at 
some  length  a  statement  of  the  work  of  Commissary  Bray- 
in  Maryland,  already  mentioned.  His  arrival  in  America 
was  in  1699,  and  his  work,  though  carried  on  for  many 
years  from  England  because  of  his  early  return  to  that 
country,  properly  closes  the  seventeenth  century,  and  opens 
the  eighteenth. 

In  presenting  his  plan'  for  furnishing  the  American 
parishes,  especially  those  of  Maryland,  with  libraries,  which 
were  to  be  the  property  of  the  churches,  and  open  to  the 
use  of  the  successive  ministers  in  them,  he  refers  to  the 
state  of  the  clergy  of  the  time  in  England  itself,  upon  which 
the  Anglican  churches  in  the  colonies  were  absolutely 
dependent  for  their  ministerial  supply.  He  alludes  speci- 
fically to  the  publication  entitled  The  Contempt  of  the  Clergy,  ^ 
in  which  the  author  had  assigned,  as  the  causes  of  the  con- 
tempt alleged,  ignorance  and  poverty.     He  then  remarks: 

I.  As  for  Ignorance  in  our  proper  calling,  it  must  indeed 
of  necessity  cause  the  Contempt  of  those  who  are  found  to  be 
such.  In  any  Calling  a  Person  is  valu'd  proportionably  to  his 
Knowledge  and  Skill  therein;  especially  in  ours.  And  3'et  I  do 
not  see  how  it  is  possible  for  most  of  us  to  fall  short  of  a  compleat 
Knowledge  in  the  whole  Body,  even  of  Preachable  Divinity,  as 
the  case  stands  with  most  of  us;  for  one  Third  of  the  Livings  of 
England  come  not  up  to  5o£  per  annum,  which  I  am  sure  will 
afford  but  very  little,  if  anything  at  all,  to  purchase  Books  with, 
.  .  .  and  yet  without  Reading  of  such  Books,  at  least,  as  are  of 
more  immediate  use  to  inform  ourselves  in  all  the  Terms  of  the 
Covenant  of  Grace,  that  so  we  may  be  able  to  instruct  others, 

•Bray,  Thomas,  Bibliotheca  Parochialis  (London,  1697).  In  1916  the 
Thomas  Bray  Club  reprinted  privately  as  Thomas  Bray  Publications,  Nos.  1-7, 
in  an  edition  of  fifty-five  copies,  seven  pamplilets  or  extracts,  some  of  which 
throw  light  on  his  plans  for  theological  education  and  for  parish  libraries. 

'  Ibid.,  "Introductory  address  to  the  Clergy  of  England  and  Ireland." 


ii8       Training  of  the  Protestant  Ministry 


how  is  it  possible  (now  that  Inspiration  is  ceas'd)  but  that  we 
should  be  ignorant  to  our  own  extreme  Disgrace,  and  the  infinite 
Prejudice  of  those  Souls  committed  to  our  Charge?  And  again, 
except  we  shall  have  a  Collection  of  such  Books,  either  of  our 
own,  or  somewhere  near  at  hand,  whence  we  may  borrow  'em, 
how  is  it  possible  we  should  ever  read  'em?^ 

The  intimate  connection  of  the  degree  of  learning,  or  at 
least  of  the  opportunity  for  the  continued  cultivation  of 
learning,  possessed  by  the  clergy,  with  other  of  the  evils 
complained  of  is  acknowledged  as  follows : 

II.  And  the  having  of  the  Lending  Libraries  near  at  hand, 
I  do  also  humbly  conceive  will  contribute  not  a  little,  to  prevent 
that  other  occasion  of  our  Contempt,  m.  Poverty;  at  leastwise, 
as  to  many  of  us:  for  this  I  am  very  certain  of,  that  many  of  the 
Clergy  in  Poorer  Livings,  who  are  Bookishly  given  (and  'tis 
pity  that  ever  any  should  enter  into  Holy  Orders  who  are  not  of 
this  Spirit)  can  scarce  keep  themselves  clear  of  the  Booksellers* 
Accounts,  nor  Money  in  their  Pockets  for  their  necessary  Occa- 
sions, because  of  their  Charges  that  wa}'-;  .  .  .^  Well,  and  if 
there  be  any  Truth  in  that  other  Imputation,  as  the  Cause  of 
our  Contempt,  which  the  Adversaries  of  our  Church  are  so  apt  to 
charge  us  withal;  viz.  The  scandalous  Immoralities,  which  per- 
haps it  may  be  too  true  that  some  may  be  guilty  of;  I  do 
hvimbly  conceive  that  this  Scandal  also  may  be  in  a  great  measure 
remov'd,  by  the  same  means  of  having  Lending  Libraries.  For 
whence  is  it  that  many  seek  for  Company  and  Diversion  abroad, 
but  for  want  of  the  better  Society  of  good  entertaining  Authors 
at  home;  The  Truth  of  it  is,  there  are  a  sort  of  writers  which  are 
traditionally  handed  down  from  one  Old  Study  to  another,  who 
are  not  such  a  good  Humour'd  and  Inviting  Society  as  to  make 
one  delight  much  in  their  Conversation.  But  what  Man  of  Spirit 
or  Education,  had  he  a  Justin  Martyr,  a  Tertullian  or  Cyprian;  a 
Sanderson,  a  Hammond  or  Tillotson,  come  to  visit  him,  would 
leave  such  Men  of  Sense  for  the  Society  of  the  Sons  of  Belial. 

^  Bihliotheca  Parochialis,  "Introductory  address."  'Ibid. 


Training  of  the  Protestant  Ministry       119 


...  In  short,  1  look  upon  the  thing  of  Libraries  to  be  the  great 
Desideratum,  even  here  in  England.    .    .    .^ 

He  declares  further  that  such  libraries  are  a  necessity  in 
'  'the  foreign  Plantations,"  saying,  "for  here  some  few  of  the 
Clergy  are  able  to  buy  a  sufficient  Stock  of  Books  for  them- 
selves, but  it  is  very  rarely  that  those  who  go  into  America 
are  in  such  a  Condition;  .  .   .    "^ 

It  is  evident  that  the  author  is  confronted  by  conditions 
at  home  similar  to  those  that  called  forth  the  efforts  of 
Henry  Dodwell  in  Ireland  a  quarter  of  a  century  before. 
It  is  clear  that,  while  the  Anglican  churches  of  the  colonies 
were  exposed  to  the  danger  of  a  clergy  not  especially  char- 
acterized by  a  manifestation  of  theological  learning,  they 
were  thereby  no  worse  off  than  some  of  the  churches  in 
England;  and  the  latter  were  numerous  enough  to  have 
called  forth  the  strictures  of  the  publication  which  Bray 
discusses,  and  his  admissions  that  there  were  facts  that 
tended  to  justify  such  strictures.  While  it  is,  of  course, 
by  no  means  to  be  inferred  that  the  English  clergy  referred 
to  in  the  above  quotations  were,  as  a  class,  either  in  England 
or  America,  uneducated,  yet  the  fact  remains  that  Dr. 
Bray  confesses  to  the  charge  of  ignorance  as  being  justified 
sufficiently  to  prompt  his  earnest  and  energetic  effort  to 
correct  the  situation  in  America  and  to  suggest  a  remedy 
for  it  in  England.  Moreover,  the  book  in  which  his  state- 
ments occur  is  a  part  of  the  literature  of  the  general  subject 
of  ministerial  training.  For  it  is  the  Bihliotheca  Parochialis: 
or,  a  Scheme  of  such  Theological  Heads  both  General  and  Par- 
ticular, as  are  More  particularly  Requisite  to  be  well  Studied  by 
every  Pastor  of  a  Parish.  Together  with  a  Catalogue  of  Books 
Which  may  be  Read  upon  these  Points.  That  the  author's 
purpose  is  broader  than  his  intention  to  assist  the  American 

'  Bihliotheca  Parochialis,  "  Introductory  address."  '  Ibid. 


120       Training  of  the  Protestant  Ministry 


clergy  alone  is  made  clear  by  his  statement,  "that  this 
Catalogue  is  published  with  some  design  to  help  our  Young 
Students  in  Theology  since  it  may  be  a  piece  of  Service  to 
some  of  them,  to  direct  them  in  the  Choice  of  such  Books, 
as  will  be  of  most  necessary  and  immediate  use  to  them  on 
their  Ministerial  Instructions  to  the  People  .  .  .  "'  It  is 
his  opinion  also  that  for  the  want  of  proper  books  "all 
the  Terms  of  the  Baptismal  Covenant  are  scarcely  Preach'd 
over  to  them  in  many  places,  "  "in  the  whole  Course  of  some 
Men's  Ministry."  And  again  he  says,  "I  hope  it  will  not  be 
imputed  to  me,  as  Arrogance,  to  offer  what  looks  like  a  direc- 
tion in  this  case,  especially  when  it  is  to  my  Brethren  of  the 
lowest  Form  in  the  Church  that  I  do  herein  apply  myself."^ 
His  ideal  of  the  training  for  the  ministry  may  be  inferred 
from  the  following : 

I  say,  the  Business  of  a  Divine  is  of  that  comprehensive 
extent,  that  good  Skill  even  in  Nature,  Mathematicks  and  Laws, 
which  may  seem  most  remote  from  his  Business,  is  not  only  an 
Accessary  and  Ornamental  to  his  Profession  but  of  exceeding 
great  use  for  the  Explication  and  Proof  of  some  of  the  principal 
Subjects  he  is  to  discourse  upon  to  the  People,  and  also  for  the 
Defence  of  the  most  Fundamental  Articles  of  Faith,  that  he  is  to 
maintain  against  the  Atheist  and  Anti-scripturistJ 

He  admits,  however,  that,  practically,  it  is  not  wise  to  insist 
on  the  actual  realization  of  this  ideal.     For  he  writes: 

But  as  for  those  who  are  to  serve  in  the  Plantations,  I  do 
not  at  this  distance  foresee  the  necessity  of  their  being  provided 
of  more  than  such  a  Sett  of  Books,  as  shall  be  of  absolute  neces- 
sity to  enable  'em  to  declare  the  whole  Will  of  God,  so  as  may 
suffice  to  the  Information  of  Plain  and  Illiterate  Men.  .  .  / 

In  this  appears  an  illustration  of  the  operation  of  what  was 
conceived  as  the  popular  demand  to  modify  the  application 
of  the  ideal  of  ecclesiastical  practice. 

'  Op.  cii.,  p.  7.  "  Ibid.,  p.  9.  ^  Ibid.,  p.  10.  "  Ibid.,  p.  12. 


Training  of  the  Protestant  Ministry       121 


We  have  in  this  book  also  a  hint  of  the  hopes  entertained 
as  to  the  influence,  and  an  evidence  of  the  purpose  of  the 
founders,  of  the  College  of  William  and  Mary.  For  the 
author  continues : 

Not  but  that  we  could  wish  to  have  one  Library  of  more 
Universal  Learning,  to  have  recourse  upon  occasion,  in  every 
Province,  and  shall  especially  endeavor  to  have  one  in  the  College 
which  is  now  Erecting  in  Virginia,  by  the  Favour  and  Bounty 
of  his  most  Excellent  Majesty  and  our  late  B.  Queen  .  .  .  / 

The  topics  suggested  are  not  essentially  different  from 
those  proposed  by  Dodwell,  who  wTote  for  the  benefit  of  a 
candidate  for  orders.  But  the  list  of  books  is  more  extensive, 
since  it  is  intended  to  constitute  a  library.  There  is  no 
mention  of  the  original  languages  as  subjects  of  study,  the 
correct  inference  from  the  omission  probably  being  that 
ability  to  read  them  is  presupposed.  This  is  confirmed  by 
the  prescription  of  editions  of  the  Scriptures  in  the  originals 
and  the  omission  of  textbooks  on  these  languages. 

{c)     Ford' s  Criticism 

The  ministerial  training  of  this  particular  time,  especially 
in  America,  has  been  criticized  for  its  lack  of  breadth, 
and  because  it  was  "confined  to  philosophy,  logic,  dogma, 
and  the  dry  husks  of  theological  disputation,  materials  for 
culture  that  have  become  more  curious  than  useful,  and 
more  capable  of  historical  use  than  of  actual  application  to 
the  problems  of  life  in  general."^ 

But  in  valuing  any  such  estimate  of  the  ministerial 
training  of  this  period  it  should  be  remembered  that  the 
branches  named  as  those  to  which  this  training  was  "con- 

'  Op.  cit.,  p.  12. 

^  Ford,  Worthington  Chauncey,  "  Diary  of  Cotton  Mather, "  p.  xv  {Massa 
chusetts  Historical  Collections,  Seventh  Series,  vol.  vii). 


122        Training  of  the  Protestant  Ministry 


fined,"  constituted,  in  actual  fact,  only  a  part  of  it.  The 
critic,  from  whatever  reason,  has  wholly  omitted  any  refer- 
ence to  the  rest  of  the  course.  He  indeed  leaves  the  distinct 
impression  that  there  was  no  general  college  or  university 
training  required  at  all.  On  the  contrary  it  was  just  this 
that  was  required.  At  the  very  least  it  was  presupposed^ 
especially  among  the  Congregationalists,  whose  practice 
is  the  specific  object  of  the  criticism,  that  a  man  who  would 
prepare  especially  for  the  ministry  would  have  had  a  collegi- 
ate training.  And  to  one  looking  from  the  beginning  of  his 
education  toward  the  ministry,  a  collegiate  education,  of 
the  most  general  sort  then  existent,  was  the  first  stage  of 
his  preparation.  This  in  itself  presupposed  a  grounding 
in  the  classics,  upon  which  indeed  it  was  based;  and  it 
included  a  special  training  in  Greek  and  Hebrew,  and,  in 
America  at  least,  in  Chaldee  and  Syriac,  besides  the  per- 
sistent cultivation  of  Latin,  and  the  whole  curriculum  of 
Harvard,  the  cultural  value  of  certain  of  the  subjects  being 
unto  this  hour  recognized  at  least  by  many,  probably  most, 
of  the  leading  institutions  of  higher  learning.  It  is  also  to 
be  kept  in  mind  that  while  the  theological  disputations  of 
that  time  do  seem  to-day,  to  many  people  to  consist  of 
"dry  husks,"  and  appear  as  of  little  value  in  "the  actual 
application  to  the  problems  of  life,"  they  did  not  seem  so 
to  the  people  of  that  time,  whether  clergy  or  laity.  The 
theological  questions,  for  instance,  concerning  sin,  guilt, 
and  the  securing  of  acceptance  with  God,  which  seem  to 
be  of  little  concern  to  many  of  to-day,  were  then  regarded 
as  most  vital,  and  did  have  their  actual  bearing  upon  the 
practical  problems  of  life,  as  the  conclusions  regarding  them 
were  courageously  applied  to  these  very  problems,  or  as 
the  doubts  regarding  them  really  and  seriously  disturbed  the 
life  and  conduct  of  people  of  that  age.  And  again,  how  a 
purely  theoretical  notion  of  what  seems  a  remote  theological 
question  could,  and  did,  affect  the  actual  life  of  the  people. 


Training  of  the  Protestant  Ministry       123 


is  appallingly  illustrated  in  the  application  of  certain  definite 
theories  of  the  power  and  activity  of  supposedly  existent 
demoniacal  beings,  which  is  known  in  American  history  as 
the  "witchcraft  delusion";  the  basic  principles  of  which 
were  held  by  men  of  education  and  intellect  in  England  and 
on  the  continent  of  Europe  just  as  surely  as  they  were  by 
any  in  America.'  It  is  to  be  remembered  also  that  the 
standard  of  educational  requirement  for  the  ministry  at  the 
time  was  not  lower  in  the  colonies  than  it  was  in  the  mother 
country.  Any  implication,  therefore,  which  may  possibly 
be  intended  in  the  criticism  before  us,  that  the  clerical 
education  in  New  England  at  this  period  was  narrow  as 
compared  with  that  in  England,  is  mistaken.  Indeed,  it 
appears  that  the  criticism  is  erroneous  as  to  the  range  of 
the  educational  training  of  the  ministry  at  the  time,  and 
inconsiderate  as  to  the  practical  utility  of  such  training,  and 
fitted  to  leave  a  wrong  impression  as  to  its  comparative 
breadth  in  relation  to  the  training  of  the  ministry  in  England 
at  the  same  period. 

It  is  to  be  admitted,  however,  that  the  training  was 
narrow  when  compared  with  the  education  of  more  modern 
times.  But  the  same  is  true  of  the  training  for  any  of  the 
professions  or  vocations.  For  the  fact  is  clear  that  the 
training  of  the  American  ministry  at  this  period  was  designed 
to  be  just  as  broad  as  the  scope  of  university  education  then 
was.  If  this  was  contracted,  it  was  so  for  all  who  were 
trained  under  it,  and  not  for  the  ministry  alone. 

'  Notestein,  Wallace,  A  History  of  Witchcraft  in  England,  1 558-1 71 8,  pp. 
1-2;  Burr,  George  Lincoln,  Narratives  of  the  Witchcraft  Cases,  pp.  3,  5. 


124       Training  of  the  Protestant  Ministry 


n 

THE  EIGHTEENTH  CENTURY 


I.    From  the  Beginning  of  the  Century  to  the 
Great  Awakening,  or  About  1740 

The  period  immediately  before  us  is  characterized  by  the 
appearance  and  development  of  new  forces  in  the  religious 
and  ecclesiastical  life  of  America.  To  trace  all  these  and 
their  effect  on  the  educational  standard  of  the  ministry 
of  the  country  would  be  to  extend  this  paper  beyond  practical 
limits.  It  is  sufficient,  perhaps,  to  consider  simply  certain 
facts  that  are  a  part  of  the  history  of  the  ministerial  training 
of  the  time. 

(a)    The  Ideal :  Samuel  Willard's  Tract 

As  showing  at  least  some  of  the  features  of  the  ideal 
of  ministerial  training  held  at  this  time  by  those  especi- 
ally interested  in  it,  there  is  a  tract'  written  by  Samuel 
Willard,  Vice-president  of  Harvard.  It  was  not  printed 
until  1735.  But  the  introductory  note  by  the  editors  refers 
to  manuscript  copies  previously  existing,  and  distinctly 
asserts  its  actual  previous  circulation  in  that  form.^  The 
author  became  Vice-president  in  1701  and  died  in  1707. 
He  therefore  probably  wrote  it  within  these  dates,  though, 
of  course,  he  may  have  done  so  earlier.  It  is  the  earliest 
American  production  on  the  general  subject  of  ministerial 

'  Evans,  Bibliography,  No.  3976. 

*  ''When  we  have  declared  that  Care  hath  been  taken  by  comparing  several 
Copies  to  offer  nothing  to  the  reader,  which  was  not  the  genuine  Product  of  the 
great  Skill  and  Experience  of  that  Judicious  Divine  the  Rev.  Mr.  Willard;  we 
can't  suppose  that  this  Tract,  in  which  you  have  much  in  a  little,  will  need 
Recommendation.  .  .  .  We  embrace  this  Opportunity  of  expressing  our 
Thankfulness  and  Joy,  that  these  excellent  Rules  for  the  Study  of  Divinity, 
are  made  more  extensively  useful  by  the  Press  than  while  dispursed  in  a  few 
private  Manuscripts." — The  Preface  to  the  Brief  Directions  to  a  young  Scholar 
designing  the  Ministry  for  the  Study  of  Divinity,  p.  3. 


Training  of  the  Protestant  Ministry       125 


training  that  I  have  been  able  to  find.  While  it  does  not 
specify  details  as  fully  as  could  be  wished,  and  is  by  no 
means  as  comprehensive  as  the  works  of  Bray  and  Dodwell, 
yet  it  does  serve  to  indicate  the  general  idea  of  the  Congre- 
gationalists  of  America  at  the  period  when  it  was  written, 
that  being  the  close  of  the  seventeenth,  or  the  beginning  of 
the  eighteenth  century,  and  (which  is  significant)  in  the 
midst  of  the  period  that  has  been  called  the  "Puritan 
Decline." 

After  stating  the  preliminary  qualifications  as  to  char- 
acter, the  writer  prescribes  (iv)  that  the  student  should 
endeavor  to  discover  the  "true  Science  of  Scripture," 
distinguishing  the  "Grammatical,"  "Logical,"  and  "Theo- 
logical" senses,  and  urges  as  necessary  to  this  study  of  the 
original  languages  of  the  Scripture,  grammar,  "Rhetorick,  " 
and  "Logick."  He  further  suggests  (v)  the  practice  of 
reducing  "Texts"  to  "  Heads  of  Divinity";  (vi)  the  study  of 
"Systematical  or  Commonplace  Divinity";  (vii)  "Casuisti- 
cal Divinity";  (viii)  "Polemical  Divinity";  and  (ix)  the 
reading  of  approved  authors  in  the  various  subjects.  He 
however,  gives  no  list  of  these,  nor  any  list  of  books.  The 
student  is  advised  to  use  his  own  judgment  upon  the  books 
that  he  reads,  and  to  "Collect  Errors  and  Heresies,  "  making 
notes  on  the  margin  of  the  books,  and  meditating  on  what 
he  reads.  The  author  further  suggests  (x)  the  study  of 
"Natural  Philosophy"  and  "History,"  especially  "Ecclesi- 
astical History."  In  section  xi,  the  use  of  "Reference 
Books ' '  is  advised.  But  again  there  is  no  list  given.  Section 
xii  urges  the  practice  of  actual  exercises  in  "Commonplace 
Divinity."  The  final  item  (xiii)  advises  "Conference" 
with  "other,  and  able,  ministers."  It  will  be  noticed  that 
there  is  included  in  this  summary  of  the  course  of  special 
study  for  one  who  would  prepare  for  the  ministry  that 
subject  which  Dodwell  lamented  as  "too  much  decried" 
among  Protestants,  that  is,  "Casuistical  Divinity,"  which 


126      Training  of  the  Protestant  Ministry- 


is  probably  an  indication  of  the  essential  agreement  of  those 
who  made  the  subject  of  the  ministerial  training  for  the 
Protestant  churches  a  subject  of  special  study  and  thought. 
In  forming  a  general  estimate  of  the  value  of  the  course 
here  outlined,  it  should  not  be  overlooked  that  the  author 
has  included  in  his  brief  list  of  topics  (and  the  brevity  war- 
rants the  presumption  that  the  inclusion  of  any  subject 
indicates  that  it  was  deemed  essential)  natural  philosophy 
and  history,  in  addition  to,  or  rather  along  with,  those 
subjects  of  "Divinity,"  etc.,  which,  as  we  have  noticed, 
are  supposed  even  by  distinguished  authority  to  have 
formed  the  sum  total  of  the  studies  of  the  candidate  for  the 
ministry  in  America  at  this  time. 

(b)   Yale  College 

The  next  event  in  the  sphere  of  ministerial  education  in 
America  was  the  founding  of  Yale  College.  More  specifically 
and  definitely  than  was  stated  in  the  case  of  Harvard,  the 
declared  purpose  of  this  institution  was  the  training  of  the 
ministry.  ^  It  was  confessedly  designed  to  be  practically  a 
theological  seminary,  beginning,  however,  with  the  collegi- 
ate courses,  and  having  no  separate  theological  faculty,  or 
chair  of  divinity  exclusively.  This  shows  how  clearly  and 
sharply  there  existed  in  the  minds  of  the  founders  the  con- 
ception that  the  training  of  the  ministry  should  be  simply 
as  broad  as  the  college  curriculum  of  the  times.     And  it  is 

'  On  Nov.  21,  1753,  the  principal  design  of  the  institution  was  declared  to 
have  been  "to  educate  and  train  up  youth  for  the  Ministry,  in  the  Churches  of 
this  Colony,  according  to  the  Doctrine,  Discipline,  and  Mode  of  Worship 
received  and  practised  in  them:  and  they  [the  founders]  particularly  ordain 
that  the  Students  should  be  established  in  the  Principles  of  Religion  and 
grounded  in  the  Polemical  Divinity,  according  to  the  Assembly's  Catechism, 
Ames's  Medulla,  and  Cases  of  Conscience."  (Clap,  Thomas,  History  of  Yale 
College,  p.  62.)  This,  of  course,  was  not  the  exclusive  design.  See  action  of 
the  Trustees,  Nov.  11,  1701;  ibid.,  p.  9. 


Training  of  the  Protestant  Ministry       127 


not  too  much  to  say  that  this  was  the  conception  generally- 
held  at  the  time.  But  from  entrance,  and  throughout  their 
course,  the  students  were  trained  in  "theoretical  divinity." 
They  were  required  to  memorize  the  Assembly's  catechism, 
and  to  be  instructed  in  Ames's  Theological  Theses  and  Cases 
of  Conscience.  The  Scriptures  were  to  be  read  and  taught 
"according  to  the  laudable  Order  and  Usage  of  Harvard 
College."  On  the  Sabbath  there  was  to  be  exposition  of 
"practical  theology  by  the  Rector  of  the  college,  or  sermons 
by  the  undergraduates."  The  students  were  also  to  be 
grounded  in  "Polemical  Divinity."  The  entrance  require- 
ments, at  least  under  President  Clap,  were  ability  to  "well 
construe  Tully's  orations,  Virgil,  and  the  Greek  Testament, " 
and  the  understanding  of  the  "Rules  of  Common  Arithmetic." 
In  the  first  year  Hebrew  was  taught,  and  the  languages 
generally;  a  "beginning"  was  made  in  the  study  of  logic, 
and  some  parts  of  "the  Mathematics."  In  the  second 
year  the  subjects  of  study  were  "Languages,  Logick,  Rhet- 
oric, Oratory,  Geography,  and  Natural  Philosophy,"  while 
it  is  said  that  "some"  also  in  this  year  made  "good  prepar- 
ing" in  trigonometry  and  algebra.  In  the  third  year, 
"Natural  Philosophy,  most  branches  of  Mathematics," 
and,  for  "many,"  "Surveying,  Navigation,  and  the  Cal- 
culation of  Eclipses"  were  the  studies.  "Conic  Sections" 
and  "Fluxions"  were  also  taught  in  this  year.  In  the 
fourth  year  the  course  consisted  of  ' '  Metaphysicks,  Ethicks, 
and  Divinity,"  the  student  thus  ending  as  he  had  begun. 

A  tutor  took  each  class  through  three  years,  and  the 
President  completed  their  instruction  in  the  fourth.  The 
latter  provision  appears  as  an  improvement  on  the  system 
of  the  English  universities  in  the  preceding  century.  Stu- 
dents recited  to  the  tutors  in  the  chambers  of  the  latter, 
being  questioned  on  all  principal  matters  in  the  book  that 
was  the  subject  of  special  study. 

A  further  feature  of  the  method  of  instruction  in  certain 


128       Training  of  the  Protestant  Ministry 


subjects  is  described  as  follows:  "In  all  Delineations  and 
Calculations  a  silent  Number,  with  proper  Instruments  in 
their  Hands,  are  instructed  at  a  Table."  The  two  upper 
classes  disputed  on  Mondays  "in  the  Sylogistick  Form, 
and  every  Tuesday  in  Forensick."  Tw4ce  a  week  five  or  six 
delivered  declamations  memoriter,  these  productions  having 
been  previously  corrected  as  to  "Orthography  and  Punc- 
tuation ' '  by  the  tutors.  In  each  quarter  there  were  at  least 
two  "Orations,"  besides  those  on  special  occasions,  pre- 
pared under  the  oversight  of  the  President.  ^  The  emphasis 
placed  on  mathematics  during  President  Clap's  administra- 
tion is  very  evident  from  the  above,  which  is  taken  from 
his  own  presentation  of  the  work  as  carried  on  under  him. 
Very  soon,  and  of  course  long  before  the  day  of  President 
Clap,  this  institution  divided  with  Harvard  the  work  of 
training  the  ministry  not  only  of  New  England  and  the 
Congregationalists,  but  also  those  of  other  sections  and 
ecclesiastical  denominations  of  America. 

(c)  The  Hollis  Professorship  at  Harvard 

The  next  important  development  in  the  training  of  the 
ministry  in  America  was  the  establishment  in  1721  of  the 
first  chair  of  divinity  in  the  country.  ^  This  was  the  HolHs 
professorship  at  Harvard.  There  seems  reason  to  believe 
that  before  this  the  President  of  the  institution  had  been 
accustomed  virtually  to  discharge  this  office,  although 
the  name  was  not  given  to  his  work.^     But  the  establish- 

'  For  all  these  requirements  see  Clap,  op.  cit.,  pp.  62,  81,  82. 

'  Quincy,  J.,  History  of  Harvard  University,  vol.  i,  pp.  534-539. 

^  "The  President  continuing  his  theological  expositions  and  exercises,  and 
the  Tutors  their  Instructions  in  Divinity  to  their  pupils  as  formerly"  {Pro- 
ceedings of  the  Overseers,  Jan.  10,  1721).  Cf.  J.  Quincy,  op.  cit.,  p.  538.  "The 
President  gave  lectures  in  theology  and  ecclesiastical  history,  and  was  in  fact 
professor  of  divinity"  [i.  e.  before  the  estabhshment  of  the  regular  chair] 
(Alden  Bradford  in  American  Quarterly  Register,  May,  1837,  vol.  ix,  p.  349). 


Training  of  the  Protestant  Ministry       129 


ment  of  a  separate  chair  would  naturally  tend  to  emphasize 
the  studies  of  this  department. '  At  the  same  time  it  carried 
with  it,  potentially,  at  least,  the  idea  that  the  other  depart- 
ments of  the  college,  as  distinguished  from  this  particular 
department  now  inaugurated,  had  become  less  exclusively 
theological.  The  object  of  the  founding  of  the  chair  was  not 
only  the  sustaining  of  the  standard  of  ministerial  education. 
It  was  also  to  extend  and  improve  the  opportunity  for  the 
training,  and  to  make  it  greater  than  that  then  afforded  by 
the  English  universities,  so  far  as  this  particular  department 
was  concerned.  This  is  the  import  of  the  "Orders"  under 
which  the  chair  was  established,  and  of  the  comments  ac- 
companying the  draught  of  them  submitted  by  the  com- 
mittee of  London  Congregational  ministers  who  drew  them 
at  the  request  of  the  founder,  and  which  were  adopted, 
with  certain  modifications,  by  the  Harvard  authorities. 
The  province  of  the  incumbent  of  the  proposed  chair  is 
defined  in  these  as  being ^  "to  instruct  the  students  in  the 
several  parts  of  theology,  by  reading  a  system  of  positive, 
and  a  course  of  controversial  divinity."  The  authors 
of  the  "Orders"  remark  in  this  connection  as  follows: 
"We  apprehend  this  article  to  be  of  the  last  importance. 
The  want  of  a  Professor,  whose  only  work  shall  be,  to  make 
students  Masters  of  Divinity,  is  greatly  complained  of  in 
our  Universities,^  and  wisely  rectified  in  the  University  of 

•  Quincy,  op.  cit.,  p.  538.  '  Ibid. 

3  The  oldest  professorships  at  the  English  universities  are  the  Lady  Mar- 
garet Professorships  of  Divinity,  founded  at  Cambridge  and  at  Oxford  by  Lady 
Margaret  Beaufort,  Countess  of  Richmond  and  Derby,  and  mother  of  Henry 
Vn.  She  instituted  them  on  the  advice  of  her  confessor  John  Fisher,  later 
bishop  of  Rochester  {Dictionary  of  National  Biography,  iv,  48  f.).  The  next 
oldest  are  the  Regius  Professorships,  founded  in  both  universities  by  Henry 
Vni  in  1 540:  these  include  chairs  of  Sacred  Theologj',  Hebrew,  and  Greek. 
In  1 72 1  the  Regius  Professor  of  Sacred  Theology  at  Cambridge  was  the  famous 
classicist  Richard  Bentley,  master  of  Trinity  College,  and  deeply  involved  in 
academic  controversy;  and  the  Lady  Margaret  Professor,  Robert  Jenkin,  who 
had  lost  his  mind  {op.  cit.,  iv,  309,  311;  xxix,  297).      In  the  same  year  the 


130       Training  of  the  Protestant  Ministry 


Edinburgh,  and  all  foreign  Universities^  which  we  are 
acquainted  with."  In  order  to  secure  the  whole  time  of 
the  Professor  for  the  work  of  this  chair  alone  it  is  positively 
provided,  "that  the  Professor  of  Divinity,  while  in  that 
office,  shall  not  be  a  Tutor  in  any  other  science,  or  obliged 

Regius  Professor  of  Divinity  at  Oxford  was  John  Potter,  who  occupied  the 
chair  from  1707  to  1737,  holding  with  it  from  1715-1737  the  see  of  Oxford. 
In  the  latter  year  he  was  made  Archbishop  of  Canterbury  (Historical  Register 
of  the  University  of  Oxford  [Oxford,  1888],  p.  46;  Dictionary  of  National  Bio- 
graphy, xlvi,  216  f.).  The  Margaret  professorship  of  Divinity  at  Oxford  was 
held  in  1721  by  William  Delaune,  the  president  of  St.  John's  College.  He  was 
noted  for  his  idleness  and  fondness  for  gambling  (Dictionary  of  National 
Biography,  xiv,  316).  In  view  of  the  preoccupation  of  the  holders  of  these 
professorships  with  administrative  duties  or  with  interests  foreign  to  theology, 
it  is  not  to  be  wondered  at  that  the  English  friends  of  Harvard  advised  that  the 
HoUis  professor  should  give  full  time  to  his  subject. 

'  Thomas  HoUis  wrote  from  London  on  the  8th  of  August,  1721:  "I  have 
consulted  several  worthy  pastors  of  churches  here,  who  have  studied  abroad, 
as  at  Edinburgh,  Utrecht,  Leyden,  and  are  acquainted  with  the  Professors  of 
Divinity's  work  there"  (Quincy,  History  of  Harvard  University,  i,  534).  The 
first  among  them  (p.  537)  was  Daniel  Neal,  the  historian  of  the  Puritans,  who 
had  studied  at  Utrecht  for  two  years  and  at  Leyden  for  one  (Dictionary  of 
National  Biography,  xl,  135).  In  1721  Harvard  gave  Neal  an  M.A.,  the  highest 
degree  it  was  then  able  to  confer  (ibid.).  Another  of  the  signers  was  Joshua 
Oldfield,  founder  of  Coventry  Academy.  Through  the  influence  of  Principal 
Carstares  (see  below),  Edinburgh  had  bestowed  an  honorary  D.D.  on  Oldfield 
in  1709.  Beside  this  connection  with  Scotland,  Oldfield  was  in  touch  with  the 
learned  tradition  of  the  French  Protestant  academies;  for  instance,  from  1708 
on  he  had  on  the  faculty  of  his  own  academy  Jean  Cappel,  who  had  formerly 
held  the  chair  of  Hebrew  at  Saumur  (op.  cit.,  xlii,  p.  102;  Irene  Parker,  Dis- 
senting Academies,  p.  138). 

At  Edinburgh,  as  later  at  Harvard,  the  original  plan  was  to  have  the  princi- 
pal teach  the  divinity  students.  The  first  two  principals  at  Edinburgh  had 
been  professors  of  "Theology."  In  1620  the  burden  of  actual  theological 
instruction  had  been  transferred  to  a  professor  of  "Divinity,"  though  the 
principal  retained  the  honorary  title  of  professor  of  "Theology."  In  1694  it 
was  decided  to  create  a  second  or  Regius  Professor  of  "Divinity  and  Church 
History,"  though  this  chair  was  not  actually  filled  till  1702  (A.  Grant,  The 
Story  of  the  University  of  Edinburgh,  ii,  p.  280,  306). 

In  1708,  immediately  after  the  Union  of  Scotland  and  England,  Principal 
William  Carstares,  formerly  an  exile  in  Holland,  a  student  at  Utrecht,  for  a 
winter  pastor  in  Leyden,  later  chaplain  and  intimate  counsellor  of  William 
III,  led  the  way  in  remodelling  the  University  of  Edinburgh  after  the  pattern 


Training  of  the  Protestant  Ministry       131 


to  any  other  attendance  in  the  College  than  the  above 
mentioned  public  and  private  lectures."^ 

The  subjects  to  be  taught  were,  in  the  private  lectures, 
positive  and  controversial  divinity.  As  to  the  public  lec- 
tures, it  was  advised  that  the  subjects  be  "Church  History, 
Jewish  Antiquities,  Cases  of  Conscience,  or  critical  exposition 
of  the  Scriptures,  as  he  shall  judge  proper."^  This  was 
modified  by  the  Harvard  Overseers  so  as  to  require  one 
such  lecture  a  week,  "upon  Divinity,  either  positive,  or 
controversial,  and  as  often  upon  Church  History,  Critical 
Exposition  of  the  Scriptures,  or  Jewish  Antiquities,  as  the 
Corporation,  with  the  approbation  of  the  Overseers,  shall 
judge  fit."-'  In  agreeing  to  the  "Orders"  as  recommended 
and  accepted  with  modifications,  the  Overseers  provided 
that  the  President  should  "continue  his  theological  exposi- 
tions and  exercises  and  the  Tutors  their  instructions  in 
Divinity  to  their  pupils  as  formerly."  ^  By  this  the  essential 
character  of  the  college  as  an  institution  for  theological 
training  was  asserted  and  maintained,  and  any  organic  or 
functional  separation  between  the  regular  faculty  and  the 
new  chair  was,  for  the  time  being  at  least,  avoided. 

The  comments  accompanying  the  "Orders"  throw  a 
certain  light  on  the  general  situation  as  to  the  ministerial 
training  of  the  period.  It  was  asserted  that  there  was  no 
professor  in  the  English  universities  whose  work  was  con- 

of  Utrecht  and  Leyden,  then  considered  to  be  "the  most  famous  universities 
abroad."  The  new  system  at  Edinburgh  substituted  professors  for  regents; 
and  a  few  years  later  there  is  "evidence  that  the  teaching  of  the  University  oi 
Edinburgh,  in  almost  all  its  departments,  had  become  distinctively  Dutch" 
(Grant,  as  cited,  i,  pp.  259,  263;  see  also  Dictionary  of  National  Biography,  ix, 
pp.  187-190).  The  reform  did  not,  however,  sustain  instruction  on  a  high  level 
of  efficiency ;  it  was  still  possible  for  prolix  professors  like  the  Rev.  John  Gowdie 
to  spend  seven  years  in  covering  the  first  half  of  a  Genevan  treatise  in  three 
volumes,  Benedict  Pictet's  Theologia  Christiana  (Grant,  op.  cit.,i,  pp.334-336). 

'  Rules  and  Orders,  etc.,  No.  6;  Quincy,  op.  cit.,  p.  536. 

'  Ibid.,  No.  4,  and  Quincy,  as  cited,  p.  535. 

J  Quincy,  p.  539.  *  Ibid.     Also  ante,  p.  128,  n.  3. 


132       Training  of  the  Protestant  Ministry 


fined  to  "divinity,"  and  that  this  was  regarded  as  a  defect 
by  the  London  committee.  It  also  appears  that  this  lack 
did  not  exist  at  Edinburgh,  nor  in  the  continental  institu- 
tions. The  public  lectures  are  alluded  to  in  the  committee's 
comments  as  follows . 

Give  us  leave,  however,  to  observe  to  you  that,  notwithstand- 
ing the  several  Universities  we  have  had  knowledge  of  have  laid 
the  strictest  injunctions  on  the  Professors  to  study  these  lectures, 
yet  in  some  time  they  have  been  generally  neglected,  and  have 
dwindled  into  little  else  than  form.  We  take  the  liberty  to 
mention  critical  exposition  of  the  Scriptures,  Church  History, 
and  Jewish  Antiquities,  that  the  Professor  may  give  to  the 
students  of  Divinity  as  large  and  extensive  a  view  as  can  be  of 
every  part  of  learning  which  is  proper  to  the  character  of  a 
finished  divine.  ^ 

This  advice,  considered  along  with  the  action  of  the 
Harvard  authorities  which  substituted  a  requirement  of 
lectures  on  positive,  controversial,  or  casuistical  divinity 
for  the  subjects  suggested,  and  which  left  the  latter  to  the 
judgment  of  the  Corporation  and  Overseers,  seems  to  indi- 
cate that,  in  college  circles,  the  chief  interest  in  the  field 
of  divinity  was  the  subject  of  theology,  rather  than  the 
topics  presented  by  the  London  pastors;  or,  a  feeling  on 
the  part  of  the  Harvard  authorities  that  the  curriculum  was 
too  extensive  for  the  work  of  one  man ;  or,  that  the  public 
lecture  was  not  the  best  occasion  for  the  presentation  of 
these  particular  subjects;  or,  more  probably,  the  President 
and  tutors  may  have  been  expected  to  instruct  in  these 
branches. 

These  comments  also  give  us  information  as  to  the 
method  then  in  use  in  teaching  theology  in  the  universities 
of  Holland.  And  it  is  pertinent  to  this  study  especially 
because  it  reveals  something  of  the  way  in  which  the  Dutch 

'  Rules  and  Orders,  No.  4;  Quincy,  op.  cit.,  vol.  i,  p.  536. 


Training  of  the  Protestant  Ministry       133 


ministry  in  America  at  this  time  was  being  trained.  It  is 
said  in  the  remarks  accompanying  the  recommendations: 

The  Professors  in  the  Universities  of  Holland  read  four  times 
a  week  on  a  system,  and  four  times  a  week  on  the  controversies, 
each  lecture  not  exceeding  three  quarters  of  an  hour.  The 
first  quarter  is  spent  in  examining  the  students  on  the  heads 
of  the  last  lecture,  then  the  Professor  proceeds;  always  taking 
care  to  finish  both  his  system,  and  course  of  controversial  divinity, 
within  the  compass  of  a  year.  ^ 

The  method  suggested  for  the  Harvard  chair  was  similar, 
being  that  of  lectures,  varied  by  opportunity  for  questions 
from  the  students.  And  it  was  ordered  "that  the  Professor 
set  apart  two  or  three  hours,  one  afternoon  in  the  week" 
for  this  latter  purpose.^  Here  is  a  significant  suggestion, 
providing  as  it  does  for  the  play  of  the  thought  and  inquiry 
of  the  students. 

The  length  of  a  student's  whole  course  of  study  for 
the  ministry,  if  pursued  at  Harvard  at  this  time,  was  fixed 
by  the  provision  "that  the  Professor  read  his  private  lectures 
to  such  only  as  are  of  at  least  two  years'  standing  in  the 
College."^  It  is  suggested  in  connection  with  the  recom- 
mendation of  this  regulation  that  its  adoption  will  "remedy 
an  evil  too  common  in  most  places,"  which  was  the  tendency 
of  students  to  enter  upon  the  study  of  divinity  when  first 
entering  the  university,  thereby  neglecting  the  preparatory- 
studies  which  were  regarded  as  necessary. '»  This  reveals  the 
twofold  fact,  that  the  tendency  was  operative,  in  the  older 
countries  at  least,  to  shorten  the  academic  preparation  for 

'  Rules  and  Orders,  No.  2;  Quincy,  op.  cit.,  p.  535. 

» Ibid.  No.  5;  Quincy,  op.  cit.,  p.  536.  3  Ibid.,  No.  7. 

<"  .  .  .  whereas,"  continues  the  comment,  "by  keeping  them  from  the 
constant  and  regular  study  of  theology  for  the  first  two  or  three  years,  you 
employ  them  in  other  parts  of  literature,  and  effectually  prevent  their  going 
into  the  pulpit  till  they  are  at  least  four  years'  standing." 


134       Training  of  the  Protestant  Ministry 


the  ministry,  and  the  desire  of  the  founders  of  this  new 
chair  to  counteract  it  in  New  England. 

It  is  worth  while  to  notice  the  appearance,  in  the  list  of 
subjects,  both  for  this  chair  and  in  the  course  at  Yale, 
of  casuistical  divinity.  If  Dodwell  was  correct,  then  the 
American  Congregationalists  were  progressive  in  their  atti- 
tude toward  this  subject.^ 

It  is  provided  that  the  Professor  is  to  "read  his  private 
lectures  of  positive  and  controversial  divinity  so  many 
times  in  the  week  as  shall  finish  both  courses  within  the 
term  of  one  year,  "  ^  as  was  done  in  Holland.  It  is  remarked 
that  this  method  had  the  advantage  of  giving  the  Professor 
two  days  in  the  week  to  himself,  and  afforded  opportunity 
for  new  students  to  enter  every  year,  and  for  the  Seniors  to 
go  over  the  course  two  or  three  times,  which,  it  was  thought, 
would  be  "of  great  advantage."^ 

The  establishment  of  this  chair  was  of  manifold  signifi- 
cance. It  illustrated  the  practical  unity  of  the  Congregation- 
alists of  the  time  on  the  two  sides  of  the  ocean,  and  likewise 
the  conception  that  in  providing  for  the  new  department 
in  the  colonial  institution  there  was  involved  nothing  less 
than,  or  quite  different  from,  what  would  be  proper  for  a 
similar  enterprise  in  England.  It  is,  therefore,  illustrative 
of  the  identity  of  the  English  and  the  American  ideal  as  to 
the  education  of  the  ministry,  at  least  among  Noncon- 
formists. It  is  important  in  the  development  of  theological 
education  in  America,  because  it  was  the  first  attempt  to- 
ward theological  specialization  in  the  country,  and  because 
it  marks  the  beginning  of  the  separation  of  the  distinctively 
theological  training  from  the  other,  more  general,  and 
strictly  preparatory  courses  of  the  college.  By  the  estab- 
lishment of  this  chair.  Harvard  College  in  reality  ceased  to 

'  See  R.  M.  Wenley,  article  "Casuistry,"  in  the  Encyclopcedia  of  Religion 
and  Ethics,  vol.  iii  (New  York,  191 1),  p.  245. 

'  Rules  and  Orders,  No.  3 ;  Quincy,  op.  cit.,  vol.  i,  p.  535.  '  Ibid. 


Training  of  the  Protestant  Ministry       135 


be  any  longer  in  essence  a  theological  school.  *  For,  despite 
precautions  to  the  contrary,  the  chair  presented  the  sem- 
blance of  a  department  over  against  the  rest  of  the  school. 

{d)  The  Ideal:  Cotton  Mather  s  " Mandtictio  ad  Ministerium" 

In  1726  there  was  published  by  Cotton  Mather  a  work 
entitled  Manductio  ad  Ministerium.''  It  appears  to  be  the 
first  of  the  kind  to  be  published  from  an  American  source. 
It  is  to  be  noted  that  it  is  by  one  of  American  birth  and 
training.  But  its  dedication  to  the  students  of  Glasgow^ 
shows  clearly  the  intention  of  the  author  to  furnish  by  it  a 
guide  to  the  students  for  the  Nonconformist  ministry 
throughout  the  English-speaking  world,   and  that  it  was 

'  Professor  CliflFord  H.  Moore  writes  of  the  teaching  of  the  classics  at 
Harvard:  "Although  Latin  was  the  common  tongue  of  educated  men  in  the 
seventeenth  and  eighteenth  centuries,  the  authors  read  were  apparently  few. 
During  the  earlier  period  the  ability  to  turn  into  Latin  the  Greek  of  the  New 
Testament  and  into  both  Greek  and  Latin  the  Hebrew  of  the  Old,  was  the 
chief  aim  of  the  classical  instruction;  indeed,  the  course  was  theological  rather 
than  literary.  Cicero,  Virgil  and  the  Greek  Testament  are  the  only  authors 
named  in  the  documents  available  for  the  first  century  and  a  half  of  our 
collegiate  history.  And  even  down  to  1830  the  classical  offering  was  meager 
indeed"  {Harvard  Graduates'  Magazine,  vol.  xxv,  No.  98,  December,  1916,  p 
72). 

'The  edition  used  is  that  of  John  Ryland,  London,  1781;  Dr.  Cotton 
Mather's  Student  and  Preacher.  Earlier  edition,  1726,  Evans's  Bibliography 
No.  2772;  see  also  Cambridge  History  of  American  Literature,  i,  1917,  p.  422, 
No.  444. 

3  Not  in  the  edition  used,  but  in  that  of  "a  Lover  of  the  Gospel,"  London, 
1789.    It  is, 

"Studioso  Juventuti 
In  Academiis, 
Imprimis  Glascuensi, 
Deinde  Novanglicanis, 
Nee  non  Nonconformistarum  in  Anglia 
Coactis  intra  privatas  parietes; 

Cotton  Mather 
Optat  Timorem  Domini, 
Atque  inde  Salutem  in  Domino." 


136       Training  of  the  Protestant  Ministry 


not  at  all  intended  to  meet  merely  the  needs  of  the  students 
of  America.  Its  hearty  reception  in  England  not  only 
testifies  to  the  contemporary  transatlantic  judgment  as  to 
its  merits,  but  also  illustrates  again  the  lack  of  any  feeling 
of  essential  separation  between  the  corresponding  ecclesias- 
tical and  religious  types  of  the  two  countries.  Whatever  dis- 
tinction there  may  have  been  between  English  and  colonial, 
there  was  none  between  British  and  American.  It  is  fair, 
then,  to  take  this  work  as  representing  the  English  Non- 
conformist ideal  of  the  training  for  the  ministry,  as  it  was 
then  held  on  both  sides  of  the  Atlantic.  For  the  book  is 
not  presented  as  a  proposal  for  reform,  nor  as  an  innovation, 
but  as  embodying  that  which  was  generally  considered  a 
proper  course  of  study  for  the  ministerial  candidate,  or  the 
young  pastor,  and  was  already,  in  essential  features  at  least, 
in  actual  practice. 

After  a  somewhat  lengthy  statement  of  the  qualifications 
as  to  character,  disposition,  and  religious  experience,  which 
the  author  judges  as  prerequisite  to  the  calling  of  the  minister, 
he  elaborates  a  course  of  study.  This  is  to  begin  with  the 
languages.  He  urges  a  knowledge  of  Latin  that  will  enable 
the  minister  not  only  to  write  it,  but  also  to  speak  it.  In 
his  judgment,  however,  "the  Latin  of  an  Erasmus,  of  a 
Calvin,  or  a  Wetsius,  is  preferable  unto  Cicero."  The 
student  should  become  able  to  read  Greek,  especially  that 
of  the  New  Testament  and  Chrysostom.  His  remarks 
on  the  study  of  Hebrew  are  interesting  as  showing  what  had 
already  taken  place  as  to  the  study  of  that  language.  He 
says, 

But  for  the  study  of  Hebrew,  I  am  importunate  with  you. 
And  the  more  so,  because  it  is  a  remarkable  instance  of  the 
depraved  gust,  into  which  we  are  of  later  years  degenerated, 
that  the  knowledge  of  the  Hebrew  is  fallen  under  so  great  dis- 
repute, as  to  make  a  learned  man  almost  afraid  of  owning  that  he 


Training  of  the  Protestant  Ministry       137 


has  any  of  it  left,  lest  it  should  bring  him  under  the  suspicion  of 
being  an  odd,  starved,  lank  sort  of  a  thing,  who  has  lived  only  on 
Hebrew  roots  all  his  days. 

He  then  adduces  as  illustrations  of  its  value  the  testimony 
of  Melanchthon  and  Luther,  and  his  own  experience.  He 
advises  Syriac,  "as  an  appendix  to  your  knowledge  of 
Hebrew."  He  recognizes  the  value  of  familiarity  with 
"living  tongues"  remarking  that  "there  is  no  man  who  has 
the  French  tongue,  but  he  ordinarily  speaks  the  neater 
English  for  it."  His  attitude  on  the  subject  in  general  is 
summed  up  as  follow-s :  '  'And  yet  concerning  the  languages 
in  general;  the  time  allowed  for  them  should  certainly  be 
proportioned  to  the  use  you  were  like  to  make  of  them." 
And  again,  "The  languages  you  will  consider  but  as  instru- 
ments to  come  at  the  sciences  wherewdth  you  would  pro- 
pose to  go  skilfully  about  the  work  which  your  God  shall 
call  you  unto."' 

As  to  the  sciences,  he  says,  "If  you  would  make  short 
work  of  all  the  sciences  and  find  out  a  northwest  passage 
to  them,  I  cannot  think  of  any  one  author  that  w^ould 
answer  every  intention  so  well  as  Alsted."^  (He  w^onders, 
however,  that  this  author  is  so  little  used.)  As  an  intro- 
duction to  the  sciences  he  recommends  Languis's  Medicina 
Mentis.  ^ 

Of  the  study  of  rhetoric  it  is  illuminating  to  find  that 
he  writes: 

Instead  of  squandering  your  time  on  the  study  of  rhetoric, 
whereof,  no  doubt,  your  Dugard  gave  you  enough  at  school  .  .  . 
my  advice  to  you  is,  that  you  observe  the  flowers  and  airs  of 
such  writings  as  are  most  in  reputation  for  their  elegancy. 
Yet  I  am  willing  that  you  should  attentively  read  over  Smith 

'Pages,  31-36.  This  and  the  subsequent  references,  unless  otherwise 
specified,  are  to  the  Student  and  Preacher,  as  above. 

'  Page  36.  »  Page  37. 


138       Training  of  the  Protestant  Ministry 


his  Mystery  of  Rhetoric  Unveiled,  that  you  may  not  be  ignorant 
of  what  figures  they  pretend  unto. 

But  he  commends  as  the  highest  and  best  form  of  rhetoric 
that  of  the  Scriptures.  ^  In  view  of  the  somewhat  prevalent 
notion  as  to  the  hair-spUtting,  scholastic  tendencies  of  the 
ministers  of  that  date  in  general,  and  of  Mather  himself 
in  particular,  it  is  interesting  to  note  that  he  expresses  him- 
self in  terms  of  the  greatest  scorn  of  what  he  calls  "vulgar 
logic,  "  as  being  utterly  trivial.  "^  He  does,  however,  recom- 
mend the  Ars  Cogitandi  and  Oldfield's  Improvement  of 
Reason.^  A  further  remark  of  his  in  this  connection  is 
worth  noticing:  "...  though,  for  some  reasons,  I  would 
be  excused  from  recommending  an  essay  on  human  under- 
standing, which  is  much  in  vogue." ''  As  to  the  next  subject, 
he  tersely  remarks,  "What  I  say  of  logic,  I  say  of  meta- 
physics," and  states  that  Maccovius,  or  Jacchaeus,  was  "as 
much  as"  he  would  "care  for."^ 

In  the  study  of  ethics,  the  preference  is  to  be  given  to 
distinctively  Christian  ethics.  But  he  adds:  "It  is  not 
amiss  for  you  to  know  what  this  paganism  is ;  and  therefore 
you  may,  if  you  please,  bestow  a  short  reading  upon  a 
Golius  or  a  More  ;  but  be  more  of  a  Christian  than  to  look  on 
the  Enchiridion  of  the  author  last  mentioned,  as  next  to 
the  bible,  the  best  book  in  the  world."  ^  Ethics  De  docoro 
he  heartily  commends.  And  adds, — "but  even  so,  observa- 
tion of  the  conduct  of  other  people  is  better."  And  then, 
"Every  Christian,  as  far  as  he  keeps  his  own  rules  will  be  so 
far  a  gentleman."  The  study  of  poetry  in  Horace,  Virgil 
and  Homer,  with  a  little  practice  in  the  art  itself,  "under 
the  guidance  of  a  Vida, "  is  advised.'' 

It  is  evident  that  at  least  Mather  himself  was  not  in- 
sensible to  the  rising  tide  of  interest  in  physical  science 

'  Ibid.  '  Page  38.  J  Page  39.  *  Ibid. 

^  Ibid.  *  Page  40.  'Page  41. 


Training  of  the  Protestant  Ministry       139 


which  characterized  the  time,  for  he  writes  as  follows: 
"  What  we  call  Natural  Philosophy  is  what  I  must  encourage 
you  to  spend  much  time  in  the  study  of."  But  he  cautions 
the  reader  that  when  he  "said  natural  Philosophy"  he  did 
not  mean  the  Peripatetic.  He  then  condemns  Aristotle, 
in  so  many  words,  as  a  "muddy-headed  pagan."  Among 
the  text-books  on  this  subject  which  he  suggests,  he  men- 
tions as  one  that  should  be  mastered.  Gale's  Philosophia 
generalis.  He  is  then  very  emphatic  in  saying  that  "as 
thorough  an  insight  as  you  can  get  into  the  principles  of 
our  perpetual  dictator,  the  incomparable  Sir  Isaac  Newton" 
is  what  he  "mightily"  commends.  And  again,  "Be  sure 
the  experimental  philosophy  is  that,  in  which  alone  your 
mind  can  be  at  all  established."  He  advises  reading  the 
"communications"  of  Boyle,  Hook,  Grew,  Cheyne,  and 
Keill,  also  "those  that  have  written  the  natural  history  of 
several  places."  He  strongly  recommends  his  own  Christian 
Philosopher. ' 

He  is  very  enthusiastic  in  urging  the  study  of  Mathe- 
matics, "as  next  to  philosophy  a  noble  study"'  for  the 
candidate.  Astronomy  and  geography  .especially  that  of  Pales- 
tine, are  recommended  as  proper  objects  of  special  study.-' 
As  to  music,  he  says  that  he  does  not  know  what  to  advise : 
"Do  as  you  please."  But  he  acknowledges  the  advantage 
to  a  minister  of  proficiency  in  singing.  ^  An  acquaintance 
with  history  is  described  as  "one  of  the  most  needful  and 
useful  accomplishments,  for  a  man  that  would  serve  God" 
as  a  minister.  As  introductory  works  to  this  study,  he 
recommends  Hornius's  .4  rca  A^oce,  which  he  calls  admirable 
and  Sleidan's  little  book,  De  Quattuor  summis  imperiis, 
as  "far  from  despicable, "  s  but  than  which  he  "cannot  think 
of  a  better,"  i.  e.,  "Matthias  Prideaux,  his  easy  and  com- 
pendious introduction  for  the  reading  of  all  sorts  of  his- 

'  Ibid.,  pages  50-56.  '  Page  56.  J  Pages  57-59- 

*  Page  61.  s  Pages  62-63. 


140       Training  of  the  Protestant  Ministry 


tones."'  After  these  he  mentions  certain  larger  works, 
and  makes  a  list  of  what  are  in  his  judgment  the  best  authors 
for  the  history  of  the  different  countries.^  These  cover 
practically  all  the  known  world.  They  are  presented, 
however,  with  the  qualification,  "if  you  can  find  leisure." 
He  then  continues: 

I  must  now  propose  church  history  with  a  yet  more  earnest 
wish  to  have  you  acquainted  with  it.  ...  a  divine  has  a  blemish 
almost  as  disqualifying  upon  him  as  any  of  the  hundred  and 
forty  which  the  Jews  reckon  to  bring  a  priest  of  theirs  imder 
incapacities  if  church-history  has  not  instructed  him  for  the 
business  of  the  sanctuary.^ 

A  considerable  list  of  books  on  this  subject  is  given,  covering 
not  only  the  general  subject,  but  also  the  history  of  the 
church  in  the  various  countries.  ^  The  whole  is  to  be  supple- 
mented by  the  reading  of  biography,  "especially  of  them 
who  have  done  worthily  in  Israel."  Books  on  the  chro- 
nology of  the  Bible,  and  Roman  and  Greek  antiquities  then 
follow,  s 

The  commentaries  listed  are  Henry,  Pool,  Hutchinson, 
Caryl,  Greenhill,  Burroughs,  Owen,  Manton,  and  Jenkins.  ^ 

The  text-books  on  theology  are  Wollebius's  Manductio 
ad  Theologiam,  Ames's  Medulla  TheologicB,  Markius's  Com- 
pendium, the  Leyden  Divines'  Synopsis  Purioris  Theologice, 
Usher's  Body  of  Divinity,  and  the  writings  of  H.  Atting, 
Tuckney,  Prideaux,  Hermigius,  Edwards,  Calvin,  Pearson, 
Witsius,  and  Mastricht.^  It  is  suggested  that  certain 
specifically  controversial  works  should  also  be  studied, 
especially  those  having  to  do  with  the  claims  of  the  Roman- 
ists, Arians,  Arminians,  the  Anti-Paedobaptists,  and  the 
Quakers.    Then  follows  a  short  list  of  authors  on  ecclesiastical 

■  Ibid.,  page  63.  '  Ibid.  ^  Page  69.  ^  Ibid.,  sq. 

s  Page  93.  *  Page  94.  '  Ibid. 


Training  of  the  Protestant  Ministry       141 


polity.  Then  the  advice,  "But  it  is  of  the  last  importance 
that  you  should  be  a  good  Casuist, ' '  with  the  recommenda- 
tion of  the  following  books  on  the  subjects  included 
in  this  field  of  study:  Ames's  Casus  ConscienticB,  Alsted's 
Theologia  Casuum,  Baxter's  Directory,  and  Baldwin's  De 
Casibus  ConscienticB. 

The  Fathers  are  recommended,  especially  Chrysostom, 
Augustine,  and  Theodoret ;  and  certain  works  on  the  Fathers. 

Pastoral  Theology,  with  Bowles's  Pastor  Evangelicus  and 
Edwards's  Preacher  as  the  books  specially  suggested,  closes 
the  list  of  subjects. 

Again  we  have  to  note  the  inclusion  of  "casuistical  divin- 
ity" as  an  important  part  of  the  special  equipment  of  the 
pastor.  As  compared  with  the  lists  of  Dodwell  and  Bray, 
Mather's  is  distinctive  in  the  place  given  to  the  Fathers. 
In  the  former  they  are  prominent  and  the  study  of  them  is 
emphasized  as  a  means  of  actual  instruction  in  doctrine,  while 
Mather  is  inclined  to  give  them  a  rather  subordinate  position 
throughout,  and  to  consider  them  rather  as  sources  of 
historical  information.  In  the  former  many  of  them  are 
listed,  while  Mather  names  only  a  few  of  them. 

It  is  to  be  observed  that  the  above  course  of  study,  while 
attempting  a  certain  completeness,  was  not  presented  by  the 
author  as  new,  or  as  unreasonable.  He  offers  no  apology 
for  it.  It  does,  indeed,  present  an  ideal.  But  at  the  very 
least  it  is  the  ideal  of  a  man  who  was  no  mere  bookworm. 
Though  one  of  the  most  learned  men  of  his  time,  especially 
in  the  sphere  of  his  calling,  yet  he  was  intensely  interested, 
and  even  exceedingly  active,  in  the  practical  life,  not  only 
of  the  Church,  but  of  the  whole  community  as  well,  including 
its  civic  phases.  He  desired  not  merely  a  learned  ministry, 
but  an  efficient  one.  As  to  this  we  have  his  own  declaration. 
He  writes :  "If  you  aim  no  higher  nor  better,  than  to  render 
yourself  considerable,  and  make  a  figure  among  your  fellow- 
mortals,  or  perhaps,  to  gain  a  comfortable  subsistence  in  the 


142       Training  of  the  Protestant  Ministry 


world,  all  you  do  is  wrong  and  mean,  and  vile,  and  the  holy 
God  looks  down  with  abhorrence  upon  you." '  He  approves 
the  thought  that  those  are  "the  only  right  students,  qui 
ad  hoc  volunt  intellegere  lit  be?ieficianL" ""  There  are  other 
remarks  of  his  to  the  same  effect.  ■'  In  fact  he  merely  held 
the  theory  that  was  the  basis  of  the  insistence  on  a  trained 
ministry  as  it  was  then  held  by  most  of  those  who  presented 
and  practiced  it,  or  strove  to  have  it  practiced;  which  was 
that,  while  learning  did  not  in  itself  constitute,  or  confer, 
efficiency  in  the  ministry,  it  was  almost,  if  not  quite,  essential 
to  efficiency.  It  is  obvious  that  in  order  to  carry  out  the 
scheme  of  study  here  suggested  a  library  was  necessary. 
Very  probably  there  was  in  the  writer's  mind  all  the  while 
the  thought  of  the  student  being  at  his  college,  or  university, 
either  as  an  undergraduate, ''  or  as  tarrying  after  the  comple- 
tion of  the  collegiate  curriculum. 

Like  all  ideals,  this  one  doubtless  fell  very  short  of 
universal  realization.  But  it  testifies,  as  do  the  lists  of 
Dodwell  and  Bray,  and  their  accompanying  statements,  to 
the  fact  that  the  course  of  study  then  held  by  the  leaders 
in  the  Protestant  Churches  of  English  speech,  whether 
established  or  Nonconformist,  in  the  mother  country  or  in 
the  colonies,  to  be  necessary  to  the  proper  preparation  for 
the  work  of  the  ministry,  was  not  narrow,  relatively  either 
to  the  purpose  and  scope  of  the  ministry  as  they  conceived 
these,  or  to  the  educational  facilities  and  educational  ideals 
of  the  age.  Nor  was  this  ideal  lower  among  the  Dutch 
either  in  their  native  country  or  in  America.  On  the  con- 
trary, it  is  safe  to  say  that,  if  there  was  any  difference, 
theirs  was  the  higher  standard.  And  in  its  actual  applica- 
tion it  is  altogether  probable  that  their  strict  ecclesiastical 

'  Ibid.,  page  26.  '  Ibid.  3  See  the  whole  of  section  vi. 

<  "  .  .  .  I  do  now  particularly  warn  you  against  the  senseless  folly  of  an 
entanglement  in  any  foolish  amour,  while  you  are  yet  a  student  in  college" 
(p.  29). 


Training  of  the  Protestant  Ministry       143 


regulations,  requiring,  as  these  did,  the  training  as  a  neces- 
sary condition  precedent  to  ordination,  secured  a  nearer 
attainment,  in  general,  to  the  ideal  than  was  realized,  or 
possible,  in  the  other  communions  whose  practice  is  a  part  of 
the  field  of  this  study.  The  Dutch  ministry  in  America, 
being  merely  a  part  of  the  Church  of  Holland,  was  held  to 
the  same  attainment  by  the  same  law  that  operated  in  the 
latter. 

(e)   The  Actual  Preparation 

When  we  come  to  compare  the  actual  preparation  of 
candidates  for  the  ministry  with  the  professed  ideal,  it 
would  seem  that  the  Anglican  clergy  serving  in  America 
at  this  time  were  almost,  if  not  quite,  entirely  of  English 
training,  and  that,  judging  from  the  statements  of  scholars 
who  have  given  the  subject  some  special  attention,  and 
from  the  information  given  by  Bray,  this  training  was  by 
no  means  always  of  the  highest  sort. 

The  opposite  appears  to  have  been  the  case  with  the 
Dutch  in  the  country,  as  has  been  intimated  above.  The 
Presbyterians  were  just  now  beginning  to  be  a  considerable 
factor  in  the  ecclesiastical  and  religious  life  of  the  colonies, 
and,  as  has  already  been  stated,  they  were  so  far  main- 
taining, for  the  most  part  at  least,  the  standard  of  ministerial 
education  characteristic  of  that  Church,  their  ministers 
being  at  this  particular  time  chiefly  as  yet  of  British,  and 
probably  Scottish,  training. ' 

•  That  there  was  room  for  exception  in  the  practice  in  both  these  Churches, 
as  well  as  in  the  Episcopal,  is  shown  by  the  following  {Ecclesiastical  Records  of 
the  State  of  New  York,  i,  p.  120):  "That  the  maintenance  of  the  laws  of  the 
national  Synod,  regarding  this  article  [sc.  Art.  3  'regarding  those  persons  who 
have  not  studied'],  in  so  far  as  it  is  in  any  way  possible,  shall  be  observed;  and 
shall  not  be  overstepped,  except  in  some  great  necessity.  And  that  therefore 
those  Classes  or  Churches,  where  there  are  Chambers  of  the  West  or  East 
India  Co.,  shall  proceed  with  discretion  therein."  This  is  an  answer  to  an 
inquiry  of  the  Classis  of  Enkhuysen,  1638.     Compare  Records  of  the  Presby- 


144       Training  of  the  Protestant  Ministry 


The  American  Congregationalists,  according  to  the  evi- 
dence of  the  Hsts  of  them  that  have  been  preserved,  appear 
to  have  had,  almost  without  exception,  a  regular  college 
course,  usually  at  either  Harvard  or  Yale.  The  actual 
influence  of  this  training  is  illustrated  by  the  careers  of 
such  men  as  Israel  Loring,  Nathaniel  Chauncy,  Peter 
Thacher,  Jared  Eliot,  Edward  Wigglesworth,  Benjamin 
Lord,  Nathaniel  Appleton,  Thomas  Prince,  Solomon  Wil- 
liams, Joshua  Smith,  Thomas  Clap,  Jonathan  Edwards, 
Ebenezer  Pemberton,  John  Lowell,  Samuel  Mather,  Noah 
Hobart,  Mather  Byles,  Jonathan  Todd,  Eleazer  Wheelock, 
Joseph  Bellamy,  and  others.  On  the  whole,  there  is  no 
evidence  that  has  so  far  appeared,  at  least  in  this  investiga- 
tion, to  warrant  the  conclusion  that  the  requirements  of  an 
academic  sort  as  preparation  for  the  ministry  had  as  yet 
been  lowered  either  in  theory  or  in  practice  by  the  American 
Congregationalists,  although  it  was  now  the  time  of  the 
"Puritan  Decline." 

2.    From  the  Great  Awakening  to  the  Revolution 

(a)    The  Awakening  as  it  Affected  Ministerial  Education 

The  revival  movement  of  this  period  was  not  without 
its  effect  on  the  education  of  the  ministry  of  the  Protestant 
Churches  of  America,  especially  the  Congregational  and  the 
Presbyterian.  For  instance,  it  was  only  after  engaging 
in  the  work  of  the  revival  that  Joseph    Bellamy    began 

terian  Church  in  the  Untied  States  of  America,  p.  144:  "It  being  the  first  article 
of  our  excellent  Directory  for  the  examination  of  candidates  of  the  sacred 
ministry,  that  they  be  inquired  of,  what  degrees  they  have  taken  in  the  uni- 
versity, etc.  And  it  being  oftentimes  impracticable  for  us  in  these  remote 
parts  of  the  earth,  to  obtain  an  answer  to  these  questions,  of  those  who  pro- 
pose themselves  to  examination,  many  of  our  candidates  not  having  enjoyed 
the  advantage  of  a  imiversity  education,  and  it  being  our  desire  to  come  to  the 
nearest  conformity  to  the  incomparable  prescriptions  of  the  Directory,  that 
our  circumstances  will  admit  of,"  etc.  (Overture  adopted  by  the  Synod  of  1739)* 


Training  of  the  Protestant  Ministry       145 


his  regular  instruction  of  students  for  the  ministry.'  The 
Tennents,  who  were  so  active  in  it,  were  also  previously, 
indeed,  as  well  as  afterwards,  among  the  pioneers  in  certain 
forms  of  education  with  a  direct  view  to  the  preparation  of 
ministers,  ^  and  their  theories  of  the  general  character  of  the 
work  of  the  ministry,  which  were  directly  related  to  their 
attitude  to  the  revival,  seem  to  have  influenced  them  all 
along  in  their  educational  work.  ^  And  Jonathan  Edwards, 
one  of  the  leaders,  if  not  the  pioneer,  of  the  movement, 
was  himself  an  instructor  of  students  for  the  ministry.  '• 
In  the  controversy  among  the  Presbyterians,  which  was 
a  direct  outgrowth  of  the  revival,  ^  the  proper  preparation 
of  candidates  was  a  factor.^  In  short,  it  seems  that  the 
men  interested  in  the  movement  as  its  promoters  or  friends 
believed,  largely  because  of  their  experiences  and  observa- 
tion in  connection  with  it,  that  there  was  need  of  the  raising 
up,  and  the  perpetuation,  of  a  type  of  ministry  different 
from  that  which  had  hitherto  prevailed  in  America.  They 
apparently  had  their  doubts  concerning  the  efficacy  of  the 
scholastic  training  then  in  vogue  to  produce  the  ministry 
that  they  deemed  demanded  by  the  times.  Whitefield's 
strictures  upon  college  life  and  influence,  especially  at  Yale, 
will  be  recalled  in  this  connection.  '^ 

'  Sprague's  Annals,  vol.  i,  p.  405.  ^  Ibid.,  vol.  iii,  pp.  24-25. 

3  The  attitude  of  Gilbert  Tennent  and  Blair  toward  the  ministers  who  did 
not  approve  of  the  revival  is  well  known,  ibid.,  p.  37;  American  Church  History 
Series,  vol.  vi,  p.  32.  It  seems  that  Gilbert  Tennent  went  so  far  as  to  charge 
publicly  that  certain  official  acts  of  the  Synod  of  Philadelphia  were  designed 
"to  prevent  his  father's  school  from  training  gracious  men  for  the  ministry,  ' 
(Hodge,  C.,  History  of  the  Presbyterian  Church  in  the  U.  S.  A,  pt.  i,  p.  43, 
note). 

4  Among  his  pupils  were  Samuel  Hopkins  (Sprague,  Annals,  vol.  i,  p.  429), 
and  Jonathan  Parsons  {ibid.,  vol.  iii,  p.  47). 

s  American  Church  History  Series,  vol.  vi,  pp.  32,  33. 
6  Ibid. 

1 0n  the  9th  of  September,  1741,  the  Trustees  of  Yale  College  voted  "  that 
if  any  Student  of  this  College  shall  directly  or  indirectly  say,  that  the  Rector, 


146       Training  of  the  Protestant  Ministry 


Besides  these  facts,  the  revival,  as  seems  frequently 
the  case  with  such  movements,  revealed  a  pressing  demand 
for  an  immediate  increase  in  the  supply  of  ministers.  This 
was  felt  not  only  by  the  ecclesiastical  authorities  of  the 
denominations  most  affected,  and  by  their  unconventional 
or  "schismatic"  rivals,'  but  also  by  the  candidates  for  the 
ministry  themselves.  For  instance,  it  is  recorded  of  the 
Reverend  Samuel  Buell  that 

in  consequence  of  the  peculiar  state  of  things  which  existed  at 
the  time  of  his  leaving  college,  involving  a  pressing  demand  for 

either  of  the  Trustees  or  Tutors  are  Hypocrites,  carnall  or  unconverted  men,  he 
Shall  for  the  first  Oflfence  make  a  publick  Confession  in  the  Hall,  for  the  Second 
Offence  be  expell'd"  {Documentary  History  of  Yale  University,  ed.  F.  B.  Dexter, 
p.  351).  This  aims  at  ctirbing  students  infected  by  the  censoriousness  of  the 
New  Lights.  Under  the  reactionary  administration  of  Governor  Law  (c/.  ibid. , 
pp.  356-358)  an  act  was  passed  in  October,  1742, to  crush  an  institution  at  New 
London,  conducted  by  Rev.  Timothy  Allen,  and  entitled  "The  Shepherd's 
Tent."  It  was  meant  to  be  an  academy  to  educate  exhorters,  teachers,  and 
ministers.  The  law,  which  was  to  be  valid  for  four  years  and  no  longer,  in- 
cluded the  provision,  "  That  no  person  that  has  not  been  educated  or  graduated 
in  Yale  College,  or  Harvard  College  in  Cambridge,  or  some  other  allowed 
foreign  protestant  college  or  university,  shall  take  the  benefit  of  the  laws  of  this 
government  respecting  the  settlement  and  support  of  ministers"  {Public 
Records  of  the  Colony  of  Connecticut,  vol.  viii,  1 735-1 743,  Hartford,  1874,  p. 
502;  cf.  M.  Louise  Greene,  The  Development  of  Religious  Liberty  in  Connecticut, 
Boston,  1905,  p.  255  f.). 

The  President  and  Fellows  of  Yale  voted  in  1746  to  establish  a  profes- 
sorship of  divinity  as  soon  as  it  should  be  possible  financially.  The  need 
was  evidently  twofold:  to  forestall  criticism  by  increasing  the  facilities  for 
preparation  for  the  ministry,  and  to  secure  a  college  preacher  who  would 
interest  the  undergraduate  better  than  did  Rev.  Joseph  Noyes,  pastor  of  the 
church  in  New  Haven,  who  is  described  as  being  "  far  from  a  popular  preacher  " 
{cf.  Sprague,  Annals,  i,  p.  345  ff.).  The  first  professor  of  divinity,  Naphtali 
Daggett,  elected  in  1755,  gave  more  of  his  time  for  twenty-five  years  to  his 
work  as  minister  of  the  college  church  than  to  week-day  instruction  in  theology 
(Stiles,  Diary,  ii,  p.  482,  cf.  Sprague,  A  nnals,  i,  p.  483  f.). 

'  The  revival  led  to  the  formation  of  new  churches  of  the  old  type,  also  to 
the  organization  of  Strict  or  Separate  Congregational  Churches,  and  of  Baptist 
Churches  (see  Blake,  S.  Leroy,  The  Separates  or  Strict  Congregationalists  of 
New  England,  chap.  vi). 


Training  of  the  Protestant  Ministry       147 


ministerial  labor,  he  determined  to  apply  immediately  [i.  e. 
after  graduation  at  Yale]  for  license  to  preach.  This  peculiar 
state  of  things  was  nothing  less  than  the  extensive  revival  which 
prevailed  at  that  time  [1747]  in  various  parts  of  the  country,  in 
which  Whitefield  had  so  prominent  an  agency.' 

The  whole  effect  may  be  summed  up,  with  at  least  ap- 
proximate accuracy  and  completeness,  as  consisting  in  the 
encouragement  of  men  to  seek  their  preparation  for  the  im- 
mediate work  of  the  ministry  elsewhere  than  at  the  colleges, 
and  to  shorten  that  preparation.  It  is  from  this  period  that 
are  to  be  dated  both  the  rise  of  the  practice,  as  a  general 
custom,  of  the  private  teaching  of  theology,  and  that  of 
taking  only  a  short  course  in  certain  studies  as  sufficient 
immediate  preparation  for  the  active  work  of  the  pastorate. 
The  Dutch,  alone  among  the  churches  much  affected  by  the 
revival,  seem  to  have  escaped  this  effect,  being  preserved 
from  it  by  their  peculiar  system. 

(b)  The  Presbyterians 

It  will  be  remembered  that  the  ecclesiastical  history  of 
this  period  in  America  is  marked  by  the  increase  and  exten- 
sion of  the  Presbyterian  Church.  Some  of  its  more  promi- 
nent ministers  were  from  the  Congregationalists,  as  for 
instance,  Jedidiah  Andrews,  of  Harvard  (1695),  Jonathan 
Dickinson  (Yale,  1706),  Jonathan  Parsons  (Yale,  1729), 
Aaron  Burr  (Yale,  1735),  and  David  Brainerd  (for  a  time  at 
Yale).  But  the  chief  supply  of  this  ministry  in  the  early 
part  of  this  period  was,  as  has  already  been  noted,  from 
abroad.  George  McNish,  who  came  in  1705,  George 
Gillespie,  in  1712,  Robert  Cross,  in  171 7,  William  Tennent, 
in  1 718,  James  McGregorie  in  the  same  year,  and  Francis 
AlHson,  in  1736,  were  educated  in  either  Scotland  or  Ireland. 

'  Sprague,  vol.  iii,  pp.  102-103;  Records  of  the  Presbyterian  Church  in  the 
U.  S.  A.,  pp.  139,  144. 


148       Training  of  the  Protestant  Ministry 


It  is  the  opinion  of  Dr.  Thompson  that  most  of  the  earher 
Presbyterian  ministers  from  abroad  had  been  educated  at 
Glasgow.'  The  fact  of  their  special  training,  which  was 
collegiate  and  theological,  seems  to  be  generally  admitted. 
The  Church  in  America,  however,  very  soon  began  to 
produce  and  train  a  native  ministry.  The  native  training 
preceded  the  truly  native  material.  Gilbert  Tennent,  John 
Tennent,  Wm.  Tennent,  Jr.,  Samuel  Blair,  Samuel  Finley, 
John  Blair,  Charles  Beatty,  John  Roan,  and  Robert  Smith, 
though  born  abroad,  were  among  those  who  received  their 
education  for  the  ministry,  in  whole  or  in  part,  in  America. 
In  this  way  the  Presbyterian  Church  injected  into  the 
ecclesiastical  and  religious  life  of  the  country  at  this  particu- 
lar time  the  force  of  the  second  native  American  ministry 
of  special  and  native  training.  It  is  safe  to  say  that  this 
would  have  been  done  earlier  had  this  Church  been  estab- 
lished earlier. 

(c)  The  College  of  New  Jersey 

The  founding  of  the  College  of  New  Jersey,  whose 
beginnings  are  traced  to  a  date  prior  to  1747,  is  a  part  of 
the  history  of  ministerial  training  in  America.  As  the 
first  effort  of  a  larger  sort  on  the  part  of  the  Presbyterians, 
it  is  significant.  One  of  its  chief  purposes  was  to  supply 
opportunity  for  preparation  for  the  ministry.  ^  It  is  signifi- 
cant also  because  of  its  connection  with  the  revival.  As 
is  well  known,  its  patrons  among  the  Presbyterians  were  the 
progressives  of  that  Church,  i.  e.,  those  who  favored  the 

■  American  Church  History  Series,  vol.  vi,  p.  25.  See  also  Beecher,  Index 
oj Presbyterian  Ministers  .  .  .  from  A.D.  1706  to  A.D.  1881,  [c.  1883]. 

'  That  its  purpose  was  broader  than  this  is  clear  from  the  Charter,  which 
defines  the  general  object  to  be  "the  education  of  youth  in  the  learned  lan- 
guages and  in  the  liberal  arts  and  sciences"  (Collins,  V.  L.,  Princeton,  p.  400). 
But  see  Briggs,  op.  cit.,  p.  306,  and  Alexander,  A.,  as  cited,  p.  81.  The  early 
portions  of  CoUins's  work  are  to  be  read  with  caution. 


Training  of  the  Protestant  Ministry       149 


revival.  Although  the  large  effect  of  that  movement  as 
related  to  the  education  of  the  ministry  was  to  send  candi- 
dates to  pastors  rather  than  to  colleges,  yet  because  of  special 
circumstances  in  this  instance  it  tended  to  the  establish- 
ment of  a  college  with  a  view  to  the  proper  preparation  for 
candidates  for  the  ministry. 

From  a  letter,  written  in  1750,  by  a  member  of  the  freshman 
class,  we  get  some  idea  of  the  daily  programme  of  studies: 
"  But  I  must  give  you  an  account  of  my  studies  at  the  present 
time.  At  seven  in  the  morning  we  recite  to  the  President,  lessons 
in  the  works  of  Xenophon  in  Greek,  and  in  Watt's  Ontology. 
The  rest  of  the  morning,  until  dinner  time,  we  study  Cicero's 
De  Oratore  and  the  Hebrew  grammar,  and  recite  our  lessons  to 
Mr.  Sherman,  the  college  tutor.  The  remaining  part  of  the 
day  we  spend  in  the  study  of  Xenophon  and  Ontology  to  recite 
the  next  morning.  And,  besides  these  things,  we  dispute  once 
every  week  after  the  syllogistic  method: — and  now  and  then 
geography."^ 

{d)  The  Chair  of  Divinity  at  Yale 

In  1756  the  facilities  for  distinctively  theological  training 
in  America  were  increased  by  the  establishment  at  Yale 
of  a  chair  of  divinity. 

In  March  of  that  year  Naphtali  Daggett  was  examined 
by  the  President  and  Fellows  of  the  college  as  to  his  "Princi- 
ples of  Religion,  and  his  Knowledge  and  Skill  in  Divinity, 
Cases  of  Conscience,  Scripture  Histor}%  and  Chronology, 
Antiquity,  Skill  in  the  Hebrew  tongue,  and  various  other 
qualifications  for  a  Professor."^  He  was  approved,  and 
entered  thereafter  upon  his  work  as  Professor  of  Divinity. 
It  will  be  noted  that,  judging  from  the  subjects  of  his  exam- 
ination, there  was  not  contemplated  at  this  time  any  special 
modification  of  the  course  in  divinity  then  in  vogue. 

'  Dexter,  History  0} Education  in  the  United  States,  p.  247. 
^  Clap,  T.,  History  of  Yale,  p.  67. 


150       Training  of  the  Protestant  Ministry 


The  establishment  of  this  chair,  by  virtue  of  its  very 
nature  as  separate  in  its  function  from  the  college  curriculum 
in  general,  introduced  at  Yale  the  idea,  however  little  it 
may  have  been  at  first  discerned,  that  the  college  was  no 
longer  simply  a  school  of  training  for  the  ministry,  certain 
features  of  which,  since  the  training  was  designed  to  cover 
the  whole  field  of  the  current  collegiate  culture,  were  good 
for  anyone  who  would  have  a  higher  education.  Divinity 
was  now  visibly  presented,  as  it  was  at  Harvard,  as  but  one 
of  the  subjects  taught,  although  doubtless  the  most  im- 
portant one,  in  the  college. 

Naphtali  Daggett,  the  first  incumbent,  was  inaugurated 
on  the  4th  of  March,  1 756.  From  1 766  to  i ']^']  he  was  acting 
president  of  Yale  College.  From  1756  to  his  death  in  1780 
he  held  the  professorship  of  divinity,  but  he  seldom  lectured 
on  week  days,  communicating  in  sermons  preached  on 
Sundays  in  the  College  Chapel  his  erudition,  which  Ezra 
Stiles  recognized  as  genuine,  but  not  "extensive."  After 
Professor  Daggett's  death  President  Stiles  complained  that 
in  the  emergency  he  was  called  on  to  perform  the  duties  of 
three  professorships  and  the  presidency  at  the  same  time.' 
Thus  far  did  the  ideal  of  having  the  professor  of  divinity  give 
his  whole  time  to  his  subject,  or  rather  complex  of  subjects, 
fall  short  of  fulfilment.  Dr.  Stiles  was  normally  President 
and  Professor  of  Ecclesiastical  History. 

{e)  The  Private  Teaching  of  Theology 

As  already  intimated,  there  grew  up  in  the  later  portion 
of  the  period  just  considered  a  practice  in  the  training  of 
the  ministry  of  the  Protestant  churches  in  America  which 
finally  became  a  general  feature  of  that  training.  It  was 
the  practice  of  the  teaching  of  theology  by  pastors,  who 
undertook  this  work  on  their  own  initiative  and  responsi- 

■  Stiles,  Diary,  ii,  pp.  482-485. 


Training  of  the  Protestant  Ministry       151 


bility,  and  in  an  entirely  private  capacity.  This  was,  of 
course,  distinct  and  different  from  the  work  done  through- 
out the  early  history  of  the  country  by  ministers  who  pre- 
pared students  for  college,  or  conducted  regular  schools  and 
academies  for  the  purposes  of  ordinary  education. 

This  practice  did  not,  however,  originate  in  this  century 
nor  in  America.  For  instance,  John  Cotton,  as  was  shown 
above,  had  a  considerable  reputation  as  a  theological 
teacher. '  Samuel  Stone,  who  came  to  America  in  1633,  had 
after  his  graduation  at  Emmanuel  College,  Cambridge,  put 
himself  under  the  instruction  of  Rev.  Richard  Blackerby 
in  England,  who  was  "much  celebrated  for  his  attainments 
both  in  literature  and  piety. "^  Thomas  Shepard,  who 
arrived  in  America  in  1635,  had  lived  with  Rev.  Thomas 
Welde  at  Tarling,  England,  from  whom  he  received  aid  in 
his  theological  studies.  ^  Thomas  Cobbett,  arriving  in 
1637,  had  studied  under  the  famous  Dr.  Twiss."*  It  is 
probable  that  James  Noyes  also,  coming  in  1634,  had  been 
assisted  in  his  theological  studies  by  his  cousin,  Rev.  Thomas 
Parker,  s  who  aided  him  in  other  parts  of  his  education. 
The  beginning  of  the  practice  in  America  seems  to  date  from 
the  case  of  John  Higginson,  who  came  as  a  child  from  Eng- 
land, and  received  all  his  education  in  America,  completing 
his  studies  under  Rev.  Thomas  Hooker,  in  1641.^  An- 
other, and  perhaps  contemporary,  instance  is  that  of  James 
Fitch,  who  had  come  to  New  England  in  1638,  without,  it 
seems,  any  special  previous  academic  training,  and  who 
studied  for  seven  years  under  Rev.  Thomas  Hooker  and 
Rev.    Samuel   Stone,    being   ordained   in    1646.^     Thomas 

•"  .  .  .  he  acquired  no  small  celebrity  as  a  theological  teacher;  and  while 
most  of  his  pupils  were  from  the  university  where  he  himself  had  been  trained, 
there  were  a  considerable  number  from  Holland,  and  some  from  Germany" 
(Sprague,  op.  cit.,  vol.  i,  p.  26).  '  Ibid.,  p.  37. 

J  Ibid.,  p.  61.  "  Ibid.,  p.  102.  s  Ibid.,  p.  43.  *  Ibid.,  p.  91. 

T  Ibid.,  p.  180,  n. 


152       Training  of  the  Protestant  Ministry 


Thatcher,  coming  from  England  in  1643,  had  refused  to 
attend  the  universities  in  his  native  country  because  of  his 
religious  scruples,  and  was  prepared  for  the  ministry  in  this 
country,  under  the  instruction  of  Rev.  Charles  Chauncy, 
then  of  Scituate,  Mass.^  Roger  Newton,  who  was  or- 
dained in  1645,  had  studied  theology  under  Thomas 
Hooker.^  John  Gerrish,  ordained  in  1675,  had  studied 
with  Dr.  Parker  of  Newbury,  Mass.,^  and  Samuel  Whit- 
ing, ordained  in  1693,  under  James  Fitch,  mentioned  above 
as  the  pupil  of  Hooker  and  Stone.  William  Johnson, 
ordained  in  1732,  had  studied  with  Rev.  Thomas  Lowell,  of 
Newbury.  ^  It  was  shortly  after  this  date  that  the  practice 
of  private  instruction  as  a  preparation  for  the  ministry 
seems  to  have  become  regularly  established.  After  the 
middle  of  the  century  it  appears  to  have  become  the  rule. 
Instead  of  returning  to  college  for  post-graduate  study  in  the 
subject  of  divinity,  the  candidate  for  the  ministry  placed 
himself  under  the  direction  of  some  pastor,  who  guided  his 
reading,  and  instructed  him,  more  or  less,  until  he  appeared 
for  licensure,  or  ordination. 

The  custom  seems  to  have  been  confined  at  first  to 
the  Congregationalists.  It  is  among  them  that  the  first 
recorded  instances  that  I  have  been  able  to  find  occur. 
This  may  be  explained,  in  part  at  least,  by  the  dependence 
of  the  Dutch  Reformed  and  Episcopal  Churches  in  the 
country  on  their  respective  parent  organizations  for  the 
supply  of  their  ministry.  But  after  the  Dutch  Church 
began  to  move,  as  it  did  in  the  latter  part  of  the  century, 
towards  a  more  autonomous  existence,  we  see  the  practice 
regularly  established  in  it  also,  and  recognized  by  the 
ecclesiastical  authorities  of  that  body. 

Probably  no  other  fact  could  be  of  greater  significance 

'  Sprague,  op.  cit.,  vol.  i,  p.  127.  ^  Ibid.,  p.  37. 

3  The  American  Quarterly  Register,  Feb.,  1835,  vol.  vii,  p.  231. 
*  Ibid.,  vol.  i,  p.  259. 


Training  of  the  Protestant  Ministry       153 


in  showing  the  practical  utiHty,  if  not  the  necessity,  of  this 
method  of  training  in  the  case  of  the  American  churches 
of  this  period.  But  in  the  final  recognition  and  adoption 
of  it,  the  Dutch  Church  by  no  means  intended  to  lower 
the  standard  of  requirement,  nor  did  it  do  so.  For  we  find 
that  from  1 745  (about  the  time  of  the  extension  of  the  prac- 
tice in  New  England)  to  1769,  six  candidates  who  had 
studied  under  American  pastors  of  the  Dutch  Church  were 
examined,  passed,  and  ordained  by  the  Classis  of  Amster- 
dam.' 

The  Presbyterian  Church  does  not  appear  as  a  factor  in 
the  ecclesiastical  life  of  America  at  a  date  sufficiently  early 
for  it  to  have  been  related  to  the  beginnings  of  this  practice. 
But  soon  after  its  entrance  as  such  we  find  it  making  use  of 
it.  The  growth  of  this  Church  being  rapid,  and  its  whole 
life  greatly  affected  by  the  revival  movement,  the  location 
of  its  congregations  and  most  promising  fields  being  rather 
remote  from  the  centers  of  higher  education  then  in  the 
country,  and  the  custom  being  already  established  by  other 
communions  of  similar  creed  and  organization,  while  the 
Presbyteries  were  empowered  to  judge,  as  well  as  enforce, 
the  educational  requirement,  it  is  not  strange  that  this 
Church  was  soon  practicing  this  method  on  a  somewhat 
large  scale,  and  many  of  its  ministers  were  engaged  in  the 
work  of  preparing  young  men  for  the  ministry. 

Some  of  the  pastors  thus  engaged  did  a  distinctive  work 
in  the  sphere  of  education.  They  conducted  regular  acade- 
mies which  undertook  to  give,  as  will  be  shown  below,  a 
training  sufficient  to  meet  all  examinations  of  presbytery, 
the  courses  extending  from  the  beginning  of  work  prepara- 
tory to  college  through  the  completion  of  a  course  in  specifi- 
cally theological  instruction.  And  it  seems  that  it  became 
the  almost  uniform  practice  for  candidates  for  the  Presby- 

'  The  names  are  given  in  the  Centennial  Volume  of  the  Theological  Seminary 
of  the  Reformed  Church  in  America,  App.,  p.  297. 


154       Training  of  the  Protestant  Ministry 


terian  ministry,  who  had  not  been  to  these  schools,  to  take 
their  theological  training  under  some  pastor. 

Some  idea  of  the  number  of  American  ministers  at  this 
time  who  were  more  or  less  engaged  in  the  instruction  of 
candidates  for  the  ministry  in  their  more  immediate  pre- 
paration for  it,  may  be  derived  from  the  fact  that  a  some- 
what rough  count  reveals  the  names  of  at  least  one  hundred 
and  fifty '  of  them  among  the  Congregationalists,  the  Dutch 
Reformed,  and  the  Presbyterians,  all  doing  this  work  in  a 
capacity  entirely  private. 

Some  of  these  had  but  very  few  pupils;  some,  indeed, 
perhaps  only  one.  For  there  is  reason  to  believe  that  the 
great  majority  of  them  did  not  seek  the  work,  but  did  it 
merely  to  meet  a  need  generally  recognized  at  that  time  as 
very  real,  and  only  as  occasions  arose  which  seemed  to 
demand  their  services. 

The  practice  continued  until  some  time  after  the  theologi- 
cal seminaries  had  become  well  established,  and  even  after 
their  general  recognition  as  the  places  for  the  special  training 
of  the  ministry.  Especially  was  this  true  in  regions  remote 
from  the  seminaries. 

As  has  been  intimated,  there  were  ministers  who  made 
this  work  a  regular  part  of  their  function  as  ministers, 
though  in  an  entirely  unofficial  way.  One  of  the  first,  if 
not  the  very  first,  to  do  so  was  Joseph  Bellamy,^  of  Bethle- 
hem, Conn.  He  began  about  1742.  Many  pupils  were 
instructed  by  him  during  his  long  ministry,  which  continued 
until  1790.  All  the  while  he  diligently  performed  the 
duties  of  the  pastorate.  Others  who  labored  in  similar 
fashion,  on  a  scale  more  or  less  extensive,  were  Stephen 
West^  (1743-1819),  at  Stockbridge,  Mass.;  John  Smalley 

'  Lists  of  Presbyterian  and  Congregational  ministers  in  the  Western 
Reserve,  American  Quarterly  Register,  Feb.,  1836,  vol.  viii,  p.  219. 

»  Sprague,  op.  cit.,  vol.  i,  p.  405.  J  Ibid.,  p.  549. 


Training  of  the  Protestant  Ministry       155 


(1757-1820),  at  Berlin,  Conn.';  Levi  Hart  (1761-1808), 
at  Preston  (Griswold),  Conn.^;  Joseph  Dana  (i  763-1827), 
at  Ipswich,  Mass.^;  Nathaniel  Emmons  (i  769-1 840),  at 
Franklin,  Mass.  4;  Asa  Burton  (i  777-1 836),  at  Thetford, 
Vt.5;  Chas.  Backus  (i  773-1 839),  at  Somers,  Conn.^  Asahel 
Hooker  (1790-18 13),  at  Stonington,  Conn.^  These  were 
Congregationalists. 

Among  the  Dutch  Reformed,  whose  ministry  during 
this  whole  period,  it  will  be  recalled,  was  both  relatively 
and  absolutely  small,  there  were  engaged  in  this  work  T.  J. 
Freyhnghuysen  (1720-47),  C.  Van  Santvoord  (1718-42), 
C.  H.  Dorsius  (1737-43),  J.  H.  Goetschius  (1738-74),  J. 
Leydt  (1748-85),  B.  Vanderhnde  (1748-89),  J.  Ritzema 
(1744-88),  H.  Meyer  (1763-91),  D.  Romeyn  (1766-94), 
Wm.  Westerlo  (1760-90),  S.  Verbryck  (1749-84),  J.  Har- 
denburgh  (1758-90);  all  in  the  settlements  of  the  Dutch  in 
New  York  and  New  Jersey.  ^ 

As  was  the  case  with  the  Presbyterians,  the  candidates 
prepared  by  these  men  appeared  before  the  designated  body 
of  the  Church  for  examination  not  only  as  to  their  character, 

'  See  the  references  to  various  pupils,  e.g.,  Nathaniel  Emmons,  in  Sprague's 
Annals,  vol.  i,  p.  693;  Ebenezer  Porter,  ibid.,  vol.  ii,  p.  351. 

'  "Few  ministers  in  New  England,  previous  to  the  establishment  of  Theo- 
logical seminaries,  had  so  much  to  do  as  he,  in  training  young  men  for  the 
ministry"  (Rev.  Samuel  Nott,  D.D.,  Franklin,  Conn.;  ibid.,  vol.  i,  p.  594). 

3  "  Previous  to  the  establishment  of  our  Theological  Seminaries,  he  had  not 
unfrequently  students  of  Divinity  under  his  care.  ..."  (Rev.  Samuel  Dana, 
his  son;  ibid.,  p.  600). 

* ' '  He  guided  the  studies  of  eighty-seven  young  men  preparing  to  become 
ministers  of  the  gospel"  (Prof.  E.  A.  Park;  ibid.,  vol.  i,  p.  702). 

s  American  Quarterly  Register,  May,  1838,  vol.  x,  p.  321. 

*  Sprague,  op.  cit.,  vol.  ii,  p.  62:  "he  was  accustomed,  during  the  greater 
part  of  his  active  life,  to  receive  young  men  into  his  family  for  the  purpose  of 
assisting  them  in  the  ii  preparation  for  the  ministry.  Nearly  fifty  in  this 
manner  enjoyed  his  instructions." 

'  Ibid.,  p.  320. 

*  Centennial  Volume  of  the  Theological  Seminary  of  ike  Reformed  Church, 
etc.,  App.,  p.  297. 


156       Training  of  the   Protestant  Ministry 


orthodoxy,  and  general  fitness  for  the  ministry,  but  also 
as  to  their  specific  attainments  in  their  studies,  the  nature 
and  scope  of  which  were  definitely  prescribed  by  the  Church 
itself.  Among  the  Congregationalists  it  apppears  that 
the  examinations  for  licensure  were  chiefly,  if  not  wholly, 
confined  to  the  former  of  these  subjects,  the  last  named 
being  rather  assumed  and  left  to  the  schools  than  made 
a  subject  of  actual  ecclesiastical  prescription  and  control. 

Among  the  Presbyterians  were  Wm.  Tennent  (1718-46), 
at  Neshaminy,  Pa.';  Samuel  Blair  (1733-51),  at  Fagg's 
Manor,  Pa."";  John  Blair  (1742-71),  at  Fagg's  Manor, 
Pa.^;  Robert  Smith  (1749-93),  at  Pequea,  Pa.-^;  John 
Woodhull  (1768-1824),  at  Freehold,  N.  J.s;  John  McMillan, 
( 1 774-1 833),  at  Chartiers,  Pa.^  Wm.  Graham  (1775-99),  at 
Timber  Ridge,  Va.'';  Samuel  Doak  (i  777-1 830),  at  Bethel, 
Tenn.^  Nathan  Grier,  (1786-1814),  at  Forks  of  Brandy- 
wine,  Pa.';  David  Porter  (1756-1851),  at  Spencertown, 
N.  Y.'^  David  Caldwell  (1763-1824),  at  Buffalo  and  Ala- 
mance, N.  C. "  Besides  those  named  in  the  above  lists  there 
may  have  been  others  whose  work  was  extensive  enough  to 
warrant  special  mention.  But  those  given  seem  to  be  the 
best  known. '^ 

Tennent   and   his   sons,   the   Blairs,  Smith,  Woodhull, 

'  Sprague,  op.  cit.,  vol.  iii,  p.  24.  '  Ibid.,  p.  63. 

3  Ibid.,  p.  117.  4  Ibid.,  p.  173.  '  Ibid.,  p.  305. 

«  Ibid.,  p.  352.  ^  Ibid.,  p.  366.  *  Ibid.,  p.  394. 

«/&«/.,  p.  465.  '°  Ibid.,  p.  501. 

"  Ibid.,  p.  264.  To  these  should  probably  be  added  Jonathan  Dickinson 
and  Aaron  Burr.  Cf.,  A  History  of  Higher  Education  in  America  by  Charles 
F.  Thwing,  p.  no. 

'  ^  In  addition  to  these  and  their  work  should  be  considered  the  Lutherans, 
whose  use  of  this  method  has  been  fully  illustrated  and  studied  by  Rev. 
Frederick  G.  Gotwald,  D.D.,  in  Early  American  Lutheran  Theological  Education, 
1745-1845.  Here  appear  the  names  of  Patriarch  Muhlenberg,  John  Chris- 
topher Kunze,  J.  F.  Schmidt,  J.  H.  C.  Helmuth,  Provost  Wrangel,  Christian 
Strait,  H.  E.  Muhlenberg,  Jacob  Goering,  while  the  method  was  continued  by 
many  Lutheran  ministers  beyond  the  limit  of  the  period  of  this  study. 


Training  of  the  Protestant  Ministry       157 


Graham,  Doak,  McMillan,  and  Caldwell  conducted  acade- 
mies of  the  kind  alluded  to  above. '  Their  work  differed  even 
from  such  regular  and  systematic  efforts  as  those  of  Dr. 
Bellamy,  Dr.  Emmons,  and  Dr.  Burton,  in  that  they  did 
not  confine  themselves  to  the  immediate  preparation  of  men 
for  the  ministr3^  nor  even  to  the  instruction  of  candidates 
for  that  office,  though  the  furnishing  of  trained  ministers 
was  the  chief  object  of  practically  all  of  them.  But  in  the 
schools  of  McMillan,  Graham,  Doak,  and,  especially,  Cald- 
well, it  was  attempted  to  meet  the  need  for  a  general  educa- 
tion. Their  theological  instruction  was  presented  as  the 
crowning  feature  of  their  curriculum.  And  their  work 
in  this  particular  branch  was  not  confined  to  the  instruction 
of  students  who  had  received  their  previous  academic  train- 
ing from  them,  but  they  also  taught  the  theological  course  to 
others  who  had  taken  the  more  strictly  academic  training 
elsewhere.  Thus  their  schools  differed  again  from  those 
academies  taught  by  ministers,  of  which  there  seem  to  have 
been  many  in  all  parts  of  the  country  at  this  time,  which 
offered  no  instruction  in  specifically  theological  subjects. 
And  they  differed  entirely  from  the  work  of  those  who 
taught  only  a  pupil  or  two,  now  and  then,  perhaps  in  both 
academic  and  theological  subjects,  because  there  happened 
to  be  no  opportunity  for  such  instruction  elsewhere  con- 
venient. The  position  of  these  schools  is  really  midway 
between  the  private  instructor  and  the  regular  college. 
Private  colleges,  with  departments  of  divinity,  might  not 
be  an  inappropriate  description  of  them.     Some  of  them 

■  For  an  interesting  parallel,  compare  the  dissenting  academies  of  England: 
"The  academies  of  the  period  1663- 1690  were  '  private  '  with  usually  about 
twenty  or  thirty  students  and  only  one  tutor.  Dissenters  and  Anglicans  were 
trained  together  for  the  learned  professions — the  Church,  Law,  and  Medicine. 
The  first  period  academies  resembled  the  grammar  schools,  but  showed  a  ten- 
dency to  work  on  university  lines.  The  tutors,  university  men,  naturally 
employed  all  the  methods  already  familiar  to  them"  (Parker,  Irene,  Dissenting 
Academies  in  England,  1662-c.  1800,  pp.  57,  58). 


158       Training  of  the  Protestant  Ministry 


actually  constituted  the  easily  recognizable  beginnings  of 
institutions  that  are  now  colleges;  and  it  may  be  possible 
to  trace  the  origin  of  some  of  the  theological  seminaries 
of  to-day  to  certain  of  them.  At  any  rate  they  have  all 
passed  out  of  existence;  some  of  them  after  years  of  service 
under  different  masters.  Their  passing  seems  to  have 
been,  in  many  instances  at  least,  determined  by  the  estab- 
lishment of  regular  colleges,  or  seminaries,  in  the  territory 
whose  special  educational  and  religious  needs  they  were 
originally  designed  to  meet.  Their  influence  upon  American 
education  as  a  whole  was  by  no  means  slight  or  insignificant. 
They  do  not  appear  to  have  received  as  yet  the  special  and 
thorough  study  in  the  history  of  education  in  America  that 
the  actual  contribution  made  by  them  would  seem  to  justify, 
if  not  to  demand. '  One  of  them,  "the  Log  College,  "  which 
will  be  recognized  as  Tennent's  school,  has  indeed  received 
some  attention  of  this  sort.  But  it  was  only  one  of  these 
schools  which  seem  as  a  whole  to  be  entitled  to  a  special 
classification. 

Their  effect  on  the  training  of  the  ministry  was  as  marked 
as  it  was  evident.  They  maintained  the  standard  of  an 
educated  ministry,  and  furnished  at  least  an  approximate 
attainment  to  it,  at  a  time,  when,  and  in  regions  where,  that 
standard  was  threatened  by  the  very  circumstances  and 
conditions  in  which  many  of  the  churches  were  of  necessity 
existing.  At  the  same  time  their  work  was  directed  toward 
meeting  the  needs  which  were  produced,  and  made  clearly 
manifest,  by  these  circumstances  and  conditions.  The  men 
who  conducted  them  were  enthusiastic  students,  and  in 
certain  cases,  if  not  always,  accomplished  scholars,  at  least 
according  to  the  standards  of  their  time;  and  they  were 
energetic  ministers,  anxious  for  a  ready,  active,  equipped, 
and  efficient  ministry.    Judging  by  the  positions  attained, 

'  Their  work  is  noticed  by  Dexter,  History  of  Education  in  the  U.  S.,  p.  64, 
especially  that  of  the  Log  College,  p.  245;  and  by  Thwing,  op.  cit.,  p.  in. 


Training  of  the  Protestant  Ministry       159 


and  the  work  done,  not  only  in  the  ministry,  but  in  other 
vocations  as  well,  by  many  of  those  who  obtained  their 
training  in  these  schools,  we  have  to  conclude  that  the  train- 
ing afforded  by  them  must  have  been,  in  a  large  measure,  a 
very  good  substitute  for  that  given  by  the  colleges  of  the 
time,  with  whose  graduates  the  pupils  of  these  schools  easily 
sustain  a  critical  comparison. 

Asto  the  general  practice  of  the  private  study  of  theology 
under  pastors,  it  appears  that  sometimes  candidates  merely 
accepted  the  services  of  some  minister  nearby,  often  their 
own  pastor,  who  would  direct  their  reading.  But  in  other 
cases,  especially  when  they  studied  with  ministers  who  were 
regularly  engaged  in  the  preparation  of  students  for  the 
ministry,  they  went  to  live  during  the  term  of  instruction 
with  their  teachers.  The  time  spent  under  the  tutelage  of 
these  pastors,  whether  they  were  regularly  engaged  in  the 
work  or  took  only  an  occasional  pupil,  seems  to  have  varied 
greatly,  often  being  but  a  few  months,  or  even  weeks,  while 
frequently  it  was  considerably  longer.  Sometimes  students 
studied  under  more  than  one  pastor,  going  from  one  to 
another  in  succession.^  There  were  instances  of  men 
pursuing  a  course  of  theological  study,  and  at  the  same  time 
engaged  in  teaching.  This  was  done  not  only  by  tutors  in 
colleges,  but  also  by  the  students  of  the  private  theological 
instructors. 

As  to  the  methods  of  these  private  teachers,  even  those 
engaged  in  the  work  in  the  most  regular  way  seem  to  have 
left  but  little  record,  either  by  their  own  act,  or  through  their 
pupils.  And  the  same  is  true  of  the  courses  of  study  used 
by  them,  and  the  reading  of  their  pupils.  But  a  few  frag- 
mentary statements  in  regard  to  some  of  these  teachers — 
the  testimony  in  some  cases  being  that  of  former  pupils — 

'  E.g.,  James  Fitch  studied  under  Thomas  Hooker  and  Samuel  Stone; 
Thomas  Robbins,  under  Ephraim  Judson  his  pastor,  Dr.  West  of  Stockbridge, 
and  Dr.  Mills  of  Torringford.    Many  other  examples  could  be  given. 


i6o       Training  of  the  Protestant  Ministry 


may,  perhaps,  give  a  fairly  accurate  idea  of  the  general 
features  of  their  instruction. 

The  methods  pursued  by  Dr.  Joseph  Bellamy  were  as 
follows : 

It  was  his  custom  to  furnish  his  pupils  with  a  set  of  questions 
covering  the  whole  field  of  Theology,  and  then  to  give  them  a  list 
of  books,  corresponding  to  the  several  subjects  which  they  were 
to  investigate;  and  in  the  progress  of  their  inquiries  he  was 
accustomed  almost  daily  to  examine  them,  to  meet  whatever 
difficulties  they  might  have  found,  and  to  put  himself  in  the 
attitude  of  an  objector,  with  a  view  at  once  to  extend  their 
knowledge,  and  increase  their  intellectual  acumen.  When  they 
had  gone  through  the  prescribed  course  of  reading,  he  required 
them  to  write  dissertations  on  the  several  subjects  which  had 
occupied  their  attention;  and,  afterwards,  sermons  on  the  points 
of  doctrinewhich  he  deemed  most  important,  and  finally  sermons 
on  such  experimental  and  practical  topics  as  they  might  choose 
to  select.  He  was  particularly  earnest  in  inculcating  the  im- 
portance of  a  high  tone  of  spiritual  feeling  as  an  element  of 
ministerial  character  and  success.' 

It  is  also  written  of  him  that  "he  was  a  capital  teacher."^ 

Of  the  work  of  Dr.  Stephen  West  we  have  the  following 
testimony: 

His  method  of  teaching  in  previous  3^ears,  I  do  not  know.  But 
to  me  he  gave  subjects  in  a  short  regular  system  ...  as  on  the 
being  and  attributes  of  God,  the  authenticity  of  the  Scriptures, 
etc.  .  .  .  and  books  to  read  on  the  several  subjects,  and  required 
a  dissertation  on  each,  which  I  read  to  him.  He  heard  the 
dissertations,  and  made  such  remarks  as  were  called  for,  pointed 
out  the  relations  of  the  new  doctrines,  explained  passages  of 
Scripture,  etc.  The  books  to  be  read  were  few.  Among  them  were 
Hopkins's  System  of  Divinity,  and  a  few  other  important  works, 

'  Sprague,  op.  cit.,  vol.  i,  pp.  405,  406. 

^  Letter  of  Rev.  Payson  Williston,  ibid.,  p.  412. 


Training  of  the  Protestant  Ministry       i6i 


such  as  might  be  expected  in  the  library  of  a  country  minister 
nearly  fifty  years  ago.  I  found  the  Doctor  read  Latin  with  great 
facility.  He  was  also  well  versed  in  the  Natural  Philosophy 
which  was  commonly  taught  in  the  Colleges  of  our  Country  near 
a  century  since.  * 

Another  writer  adds  the  following:  "I  will  here  relate  a 
conversation  which  Dr.  Kirkland,  President  of  Harvard,  had 
with  me  in  connection  with  Dr.  West's  Theological  school. 
'The  fall  after  I  graduated,'  said  he,  'my  father  sent  me  to 
Dr.  West's  house  to  study  Theology.  Very  soon  after  my 
admission,  he  placed  in  my  hands  such  books  as  Edwards's 
powerful  work  on  Original  Sin,  Hopkins's  Treatise  on  Holi- 
ness. .  .  .'"^ 

There  is  also  a  testimony  as  to  the  method  of  William 
Graham,  who,  while  conducting  one  of  the  academies  re- 
ferred to  above,  gave  special  attention  to  the  preparation  of 
students  immediately  for  the  ministry.     It  is : 

From  the  time  of  his  ordination  by  the  Presbytery  of  Hanover 
in  1775  he  became  a  teacher  of  Theology.  Most  of  those  who 
entered  the  holy  ministry  in  the  Valley  of  Virginia  pursued  their 
preparatory  studies  under  his  direction.  And,  after  the  great 
revival,  which  commenced  in  1789,  he  had  a  theological  dass  of 
seven  or  eight  members,  under  his  tuition,  which  he  kept  up  for 
several  years.  It  was  his  custom  to  devote  one  day  in  a  week  to 
hearing  the  written  discourses  of  these  candidates,  and  to  a  free 
discussion  of  theological  points.  .  .  .     Yet  he  encouraged  the 

'  Rev.  Chester  Dewey,  in  Sprague,  op.  cit.,  vol.  i,  p.  553. 

'Rev.  Timothy  Woodbridge,  ibid.,  p.  556. 

Among  the  books  read  by  Thomas  Robbins  while  a  student  under  Dr.  West, 
were  Fuller's  Letters,  Edwards's  Inquiry,  West's  Moral  Agency,  Hume's  Essay 
on  Miracles,  Campbell's  Answer  to  Hume,  Home's  Letters  on  Missions,  Taylor 
on  Original  Sin,  Edwards's  Last  End  of  Creation,  Hopkins's  System. 

Among  his  exercises  were  essays  and  sermons  on  such  subjects  as  The 
Divinity  of  the  Scriptures,  The  Moral  State  of  Man  Now,  The  Necessity  of  Atone- 
ment, The  Necessity  of  Regeneration,  The  Scripture  Doctrine  of  Atonement,  The 
Cause  and  Nature  of  Regeneration  {Diary  of  Thomas  Robbins,  for  June,  1797). 


i62      Training  of  the  Protestant  Ministry 


utmost  freedom  of  discussion,  and  seemed  to  aim,  not  so  much  to 
bring  his  pupils  to  think  as  he  did,  as  to  teach  them  to  think  on 
all  subjects  for  themselves.  A  slavish  subjection  to  human 
authority  he  repudiated  .  .  .  [he]  uniformly  insisted  that  all 
opinions  be  subjected  to  the  test  of  Scripture  and  reason.  Some 
of  his  students  have  been  heard  to  say  that  the  chief  benefit 
which  they  derived  from  his  instruction,  was,  that,  by  this  mea,ns, 
they  were  led  to  the  free  and  independent  exercise  of  their  own 
faculties  in  the  investigation  of  truth.' 

Of  the  work  of  Asa  Burton,  we  have  the  following : 

As  an  instructor  in  Theology,  he  was  much  distinguished. 
As  his  views  were  exceedingly  lucid,  his  method  of  imparting 
instruction  was  simple  and  easy.  However  abstruse  the  subject 
on  which  he  was  speaking,  his  pupils  never  had  occasion  to  ask 
him  what  he  meant.  The  first  ten  subjects  in  his  system  which 
he  prescribed  were  metaphysical;  for  he  said  he  never  had  a  pupil 
from  any  College,  who  had  any  consistent  or  definite  view  of  free, 
moral  agency.  He  considered  that  a  correct  knowledge  of  the 
human  mind  bore  much  the  same  relation  to  a  correct  under- 
standing of  Divinity,  as  that  of  anatomy  does  to  the  healing  art. 
Whatever  may  be  thought  of  his  speculations  in  mental  philos- 
ophy he  unquestionably  took  the  only  consistent  method  to  a 
right  and  thorough  understanding  of  his  subject.  He  treated  it 
according  to  the  laws  of  classification.  He  instructed  his  pupils 
to  inquire  into  the  general  and  specific  differences  of  their  mental 
operations; — how  the  intellectual  and  perceptive  differed  from 
the  sentiment  or  feeling;  how  these  differed  from  the  voluntary; 
and  to  reckon  all  those  which  had  a  common  nature  as  belonging 
to  the  same  faculty,  and  to  inquire  why  these  faculties  were 
necessary  to  constitute  accountable,  moral  agents.  It  had  been 
commonly  agreed  that  beings  who  had  the  three  faculties,  under- 
standing, heart  and  will,  were  moral  agents;  but  comparatively 
few  had  ever  thought  of  inquiring  why  these  faculties  or  any 
others  were  necessary  to  render  them  such.  He  placed  a  great 
value  upon  truth.     Few  minds  have  ever  been  more  strongly 

*  Alexander,  A.,  in  Sprague,  op.  cit.,  vol.  iii,  pp.  368  f. 


Training  of  the  Protestant  Ministry       163 


impressed  with  the  importance  of  correct  views  upon  all  subjects, 
especially  of  religion.  At  the  same  time  he  was  not  captious, 
disputatious,  nor  censorious.  But  in  nothing  were  his  services 
more  important,  or  his  influence  more  enduring,  than  in  the  aiding 
young  men  in  their  preparation  for  the  ministry.' 

More  specifically  as  to  his  method  is  the  following  from 
another  source.  "Besides  the  instruction  conveyed  by  his 
daily  intercourse,  he  was  accustomed  to  spend  about  three 
hours  at  a  time,  twice  each  week,  lecturing  to  them  [i.e. 
his  pupils]  on  the  various  points  of  his  system."^  He  began 
this  work  about  1786,  and  from  that  date  until  18 16,  when  he 
declined  to  take  any  more,  he  had  from  two  to  four  students 
under  his  care.  We  know  something  also  of  the  details  of 
his  equipment.  It  is  authoritatively  stated  as  to  this  that 
"the  Theological  library  of  Dr.  Burton,  with  the  exception 
of  a  few^  commentaries,  is  now^  in  the  possession  of  the  "writer. 
One  shelf,  about  six  feet  long,  contains  the  whole.  He  did 
not  bury  his  students  amid  the  productions  of  the  Dark 
Ages,  nor  deluge  them  with  periodicals ;  but  he  taught  them  to 
think."     And  again  from  the  same  authority, 

Lest  it  be  thought  that  his  own  mind  suffered,  it  may  be 
proper  to  state  that  there  was  an  excellent  librarj^  in  Thetford, 
formed  through  his  instrumentality,  and  chiefly  of  his  own  selec- 
tion. Of  course  theology  had  its  due  proportion.  He  also  had 
access  to  the  libraries  of  Dartmouth  College 

Dr.  Burton  is  described  as  not  being  a  general  reader,  nor  a 
classical  scholar  nor  a  rhetorician.  But  one  whose  judgment 
is  not  to  be  disregarded  says :  "  As  an  instructor  in  systematic 
theology,  I  give  him  a  higher  place  than  any  other  man 
whom  I  have  ever  known. ' '  ^ 

'  Rev.  David  Thurston,  in  Sprague,  op.  cit.,  vol.  ii,  p.  I47. 
»  Rev.  Thomas  Adams,  American  Quarterly  Register,  May,  1838,  vol.  x,  p. 
332.  -s  Ihid.,  note  by  Rev.  David  Thurston. 


164      Training  of  the  Protestant  Ministry 


Of  John  Woodhull's  work  in  this  sphere  it  is  recorded : 
"As  a  teacher  he  moved  pretty  much  in  the  beaten  track, 
and  had  a  set  of  questions  from  which  he  rarely  departed  in 
the  examination  of  his  students. ' ' ' 

It  is  said  of  the  work  of  Nathan  Grier: 

Those  who  studied  under  his  direction  were  accustomed  to 
divide  their  time  between  the  study  of  the  Scriptures,  Ecclesias- 
tical History,  and  a  series  of  questions — about  one  hundred  in 
number — in  the  usual  order  of  the  System  of  Theology.  On  these 
questions  they  were  required  to  write  pretty  fully,  and  submit  the 
results  to  his  examination  and  criticism.  In  like  manner,  they 
composed  sermons,  on  which  they  had  his  opinion  as  to  matter 
and  manner.^ 

The  method  of  Asahel  Hooker  is  described  as  follows : 

He  had  a  list  of  questions,  as  was  common  at  that  day,  em- 
bracing all  the  essential  points  in  a  theological  course,  on  which 
we  were  required  to  write.  In  preparing  ...  we  were  expected 
prayerfully  to  study  the  Scriptures,  and  to  avail  ourselves  of  such 
other  helps  as  were  in  our  reach.  We  read  our  theses  before  him 
at  certain  hours.  ^ 

Of  John  Anderson,  whose  name  should  be  included  in  the 
list  of  Presbyterian  pastors  engaged  in  this  kind  of  work, 
and  who  was  of  North  Carolina  and  Pennsylvania,  it  is  said, 
"As  a  teacher  of  Theology  he  took  deep  interest  in  develop- 
ing the  native  talent  of  his  pupils  .  .  .  his  aim  was  to  train 

'  Rev.  John  McDowell,  in  Sprague,  op.  cit.,  vol.  iii,  p.  307.  He  also 
remarks:  "I  do  not  think  that  he  was  very  extensively  read  in  Theology  .  .  . 
certainly  his  library  was  very  limited;  and  yet  he  seemed  to  understand  well 
the  doctrines  and  relations  of  his  own  system." 

^  Rev.  David  McConaughy,  President  of  Washington  College,  Penn.,  in 
Sprague,  op.  cit.,  vol.  iii,  p.  465. 

3  Rev.  Heman  Humphrey,  in  Sprague,  op.  cit.,  vol.  ii,  p.  300:  "Mr. 
Hooker  was  uncommonly  skilful  as  well  as  successful  as  a  theological  teacher." 


Training  of  the  Protestant  Ministry       165 


his  pupils  for  preaching  the  truth  rather  than  figuring  in 
polemics." 

From  these  instances,'  it  may  be  gathered  that  there 
was  some  diversity  of  method  among  these  teachers.  Some 
of  them  seem  to  have  confined  themselves  to  a  short  course. 
All  of  them  seem  to  have  traversed  a  rather  limited  field, 
which  appears  to  have  consisted  chiefly  of  what  was  known 
as  "divinity"  proper,  or  systematic  theology.  There  is 
certainly  a  lack  of  specific  reference  on  the  part  of  their 
pupils  who  have  written  concerning  their  instruction  to 
such  subjects  as  history  and  antiquities,  though  this  failure 
to  mention  these  is,  of  course,  not  conclusive  proof  that  they 
did  not  teach  them.  In  the  case  of  Nathan  Grier,  ecclesias- 
tical history  is  distinctly  named  as  a  main  subject,  though 
no  similar  reference  has  been  found  with  regard  to  any  of 
the  others.  While  some  were  evidently  somewhat  formal  in 
their  instruction,  delivering  regular  lectures  to  their  small 
classes,  as  did  Burton,  others  appear  to  have  relied  chiefly 
on  directing  the  reading  of  their  students,  catechizing  them 
on  the  subjects  thus  studied,  and  inspecting  their  written 
exercises  on  questions  in  theology,  and  in  interpretation  of 
Scripture,  including  sermons.  There  were  in  each  case  the 
opportunity  and  advantage  of  close  contact  between  teacher 
and  pupil,  and  of  informal  intercourse.  Some  of  the  teachers 
seem  to  have  encouraged  the  presentation  of  difficulties 
that  the  student  might  feel  on  any  specific  subject.  It  will 
be  noticed  that  the  pupils  from  whom  the  testimony  here 
presented  comes  speak  frequently  and  strongly  of  the  at- 
tempt of  these  instructors  to  stimulate  individual  and 
independent  thought  on  the  part  of  the  students.  More 
than  once  it  is  emphasized  that  their  aim  was  not  so  much  to 

'  For  the  method  of  Dr.  Joseph  Lathrop,  of  West  Springfield,  Mass. ,  which 
was  essentially  the  same  as  that  of  Dr.  Bellamy,  see  Woods,  Leonard,  History 
0/  A  ndover  Theological  Seminary,  p.  23 ;  the  whole  of  chapter  i  for  the  presenta- 
tion of  the  method  of  private  teaching. 


i66      Training  of  the  Protestant  Ministry 


produce  learned  men  as  to  quicken  the  intellectual  and 
spiritual  life  of  those  whom  they  taught.  On  the  other  hand, 
it  appears  that  the  instruction  in  some  cases  may  have  been 
somewhat  dry  and  formal,  and,  perhaps,  even  perfunctory. 
It  became,  sometimes  at  least,  rather  desultory  as  to  method ; 
that  is,  in  the  actual  work  of  the  student.  There  was, 
however,  the  advantage  of  having  an  opportunity  for  special 
and  expert  instruction  in  certain  phases  of  purely  pastoral 
work.  The  situation  of  the  student,  and  the  fact  that  the 
instructor  was  constantly  engaged  in  pastoral  work  as  his 
chief  occupation,  gave  the  best  opportunity  for  first-hand 
study  of  this  phase  of  the  minister's  activity.  There  is 
reason  to  believe,  however,  that  this  part  of  the  instruction, 
while  actually  obtained  and  of  the  greatest  value,  was  prob- 
ably regarded,  at  any  rate  for  the  most  part,  as  incidental, 
rather  than  essential,  the  objective  being  apparently  the 
attainment  of  proficiency  in  "divinity."  There  were  also 
certain  disadvantages  in  the  method  which  are  quite  obvious, 
and  are  inherent  in  it.  Such  were  the  narrowness  of  the 
field  that  it  was  practicable  to  cover,  even  if  there  had  been 
much  disposition  to  make  it  broader ;  the  tendency  toward  a 
shortened  course;  the  absence  of  the  stimulus  coming  from 
a  large  body  of  students  working  together,  an  academic 
atmosphere,  and  a  corps  of  specialized  instructors  in  various 
departments.  In  spite  of  these  and  any  other  disadvantages 
that  may  have  existed,  the  method  continued  from  before  the 
middle  of  the  eighteenth,  until  well  into  the  nineteenth 
century,  and  during  a  large  part  of  this  period  was  almost 
universal.  If  the  efficiency  manifested  by  the  men  trained 
under  it  furnishes  any  true  basis  for  making  an  estimate  of 
its  value,  it  was  at  least  far  more  effective  in  its  purpose  to 
provide  an  acceptable  ministry  for  the  country  and  the  time 
that  would  naturally  be  expected  from  only  a  theoretical 
consideration  of  its  probable  utility.  Many  men  of  the 
greatest  distinction  in  the  American  pulpit  received  their 


Training  of  the  Protestant  Ministry       167 


training  in  this  way.'  And  it  is  very  doubtful  whether, 
in  a  comparison  of  careers,  these  ministers  as  a  class  would 
be  found  to  be  at  all  inferior  to  those  who  were  trained  in 
the  same  period  by  the  professors  of  divinity  ajid  other 
instructors  in  the  colleges,  whose  work  constituted  the  only 
other  method  of  ministerial  training  then  in  operation. 

As  to  the  causes  of  the  practice  of  the  private  teaching 
of  theology  in  America,  it  seems  that  at  first  it  was  due  to 
the  lack  of  any  other  facilities  whatever.  But  it  is  clear  that 
this  will  not  account  for  its  final  wide  extension  and  long 
continuance,  for  these  occurred  during  a  period  when  colleges 
and  chairs  of  divinity  were  being  steadily  multiplied.  As 
has  already  been  suggested,  the  revival  movement  seems  to 
have  been  a  cause  of  the  resort  to  the  practice.  So  also  were 
certain  consequences  of  that  movement;  as,  for  instance, 
the  multiplication  of  congregations^  and  the  demand  for 
ministers,  which  called  for  as  short  a  method  of  preparation 
for  the  work  as  could  be  devised;  a  conception  that  the 
college  atmosphere  was  probably  not  the  best  place  for 
developing  the  kind  of  spiritual  life  that,  in  the  judgment  of 
the  leaders  establishing  the  method,  was  the  most  desirable 
for  a  minister  to  possess;  the  actual  separation  that  had 
already  occurred  between  the  regular  college  curriculum 
and  the  chair  of  divinity  in  the  college,  and  the  self-per- 
petuating tendency  natural  to  any  way  of  doing  anything 
after  it  has  once  become  recognized  as  regular.  Besides 
these,  there  were  considerations  of  convenience  from  the 
standpoint  of  the  student,  which  were  doubtless  of  no 
inconsiderable  influence.  In  certain  sections  the  lack  of 
other  facilities  did,  of  course,  tend  even  at  a  late  date  to 
justify   and  perpetuate  the  practice.     That   there  were 

'  Some  of  the  most  distinguished  teachers  were  themselves  trained  thus : 
Smalley  was  a  pupil  of  Bellamy  and  Emmons  of  Smalley. 

'  See  S.  Leroy  Blake,  The  Separates  or  Strict  Congregationalists  of  New 
England,  Boston,  c.  1902,  p.  126  flf. 


i68       Training  of  the  Protestant  Ministry 


however,  other  and  deeper  causes  even  in  such  regions  is 
seen  in  the  fact  that  the  private  academies  which  did  so 
much  of  the  training  of  Presbyterian  ministers  were  mostly, 
if  not  quite  without  exception,  permeated  by  what  we  would 
to-day  call  a  decidedly  evangelistic  spirit.  And  there  was 
all  the  while  the  evident  fact  of  the  acceptability  and  effi- 
ciency of  men  trained  under  this  system,  together  with  the 
theoretical  justification,  that  instruction  by  an  active  pastor 
especially  interested  in  training  men  for  his  own  profession 
might  be,  after  all,  just  the  best  possible  to  be  obtained  for 
that  work.  It  was  also  the  case  that  in  college,  as  for  in- 
stance at  Dartmouth,  the  study  of  divinity  might  amount 
to  nothing  more  than  a  self-directed  course  in  reading. ' 
Both  as  cause  and  effect,  appears  the  final  attitude  of  the 
ministry,  at  least  of  New  England,  which  was  one  of  en- 
couragement to  a  shortened  course  of  the  more  special 
preparation  for  the  ministry,  though  not  of  the  college 
training. '  The  effect  of  the  practice  as  a  whole  may  be 
summed  up  as  a  lowering  of  the  standard  of  ministerial 
education.    Allowance  should  be  made,  however,  for  such 

'  Asa  Burton  and  another  candidate  at  Dartmouth,  1753-57,  "received  no 
instruction,  except  as  to  the  authors  they  should  read.  Their  attention  was 
chiefly  directed  to  Witsius's  Economy  of  the  Covenants,  and  Ridgeley's  Body  oj 
Divinity"  {American  Quarterly  Register,  May,  1838,  vol.  x,  p.  324).  Being 
unexpectedly  licensed  to  preach  while  engaged  in  this  post-graduate  study,  and 
realizing  "that  he  was  poorly  furnished  ...  he  put  himself  under  the  direc- 
tion of  Rev.  Levi  Hart  of  Preston,  Ct.,  where  he  spent  about  three  months 
reading  books  of  divinity,  writing  on  theological  subjects,  and  preaching  occa- 
sionally in  the  neighboring  towns"  {ibid.). 

'  Rev.  Professor  Nathaniel  Taylor,  D.D.,  in  Sprague,  op.  cit.,  vol.  ii,  p.  161, 
writes  of  his  experience  as  a  student  of  Yale  under  Timothy  D wight:  "He 
[that  is  Dwight]  always  advised  and  even  urged  young  men, — when  the  fashion 
was  to  be  licensed  to  preach  within  a  few  months,  or  even  weeks,  after  they 
were  graduated,  to  remain  and  study  Theology,  at  least  for  one  or  two  years. 
It  was  in  compHance  with  his  counsel  that  I  did  so,  though  it  was  a  thing  nearly 
or  quite  unprecedented,  and  though  my  classmates,  and  even  ministers, 
regarded  it  as  little  better  than  lost.  But  Dr.  Dwight,  in  his  views  of  this 
subject,  was  greatly  in  advance  of  most  of  his  contemporaries." 


Training  of  the  Protestant  Ministry       169 


corrective  influences  as  were  exercised  by  the  ecclesiastical 
authorities  of  the  denominations  asserting  the  right  to  con- 
trol such  matters,  the  attitude  of  the  private  academies,  and 
the  influence  of  the  chairs  of  divinity  in  the  colleges. 

(/)   The  Increase  in  the  Number  of  Educational  Opportunities 

It  should  be  remembered  that  this  period  is  characterized 
by  the  multiplication  of  the  facilities  for  higher  education  in 
America.  Between  1754  ^^^  '^77^  the  University  of  Penn- 
sylvania, Columbia,  Brown,  Rutgers,  and  Dartmouth  were 
founded  (the  modern  name  is  used  in  each  case  for  con- 
venience). The  ancient  motive  of  the  desire  for  a  trained 
ministry  was  powerful  in  the  cases  of  Rutgers  and  Dart- 
mouth, while  denominational  devotion  founded  Brown. 
All  of  them  have  had  a  part  at  least  in  the  preparatory 
academic  training  of  Protestant  ministers. 

3.    From  the  Revolution  to  the  End  of  the  Century 
{a)  The  Revolution  and  Education  for  the  Ministry 

The  serious  effect  of  the  Revolution  on  educational  work 
and  institutions  in  America  is  generally  recognized.'  The 
temporary  scattering  of  the  students  of  Yale,  the  suspension 
of  the  College  of  New  Jersey,  the  interference  with  the  work 
of  Harvard,  are  familiar  facts.  Of  William  and  Mary, 
President  Madison  wrote  to  President  Stiles  of  Yale,  Aug. 
I,  1780:  "Since  the  Revolution  its  former  resources  have 
been  almost  annihilated."^ 

The  supply  of  candidates  for  the  ministry  was  reduced. 
This  class  of  students  suffered  a  loss  greater  in  proportion 
than  the  whole  body  of  students.  For,  from  the  lists  avail- 
able, it  appears  that  the  whole  number  of  graduates  in  the 

'  See  Dejcter,  History  of  Education  in  the  U.  S.,  ch.  xv. 

'  Dexter,  F.  B.,  Literary  Diary  of  Ezra  Stiles,  vol.  ii,  pp.  447,  448. 


170       Training  of  the  Protestant  Ministry 


colleges  of  New  England,  New  York,  and  New  Jersey,  from 
1768  to  1775,  inclusive,  was  eight  hundred  and  fifty-five, 
of  whom  two  hundred  and  eighty-seven  were  ministers; 
while  for  the  seven  years,  1776  to  1783,  inclusive,  there  were 
seven  hundred  and  sixty-nine  graduates,  of  whom  about  one 
hundred  and  forty -five  became  ministers. '  Indeed,  as  the 
end  of  the  struggle  drew  near  the  number  of  students  tended 
to  increase.  It  was  in  1 782  that  President  Stiles  could  record 
a  total  of  two  hundred  and  eighteen  undergraduates  in  Yale, 
the  highest  until  then  in  the  history  of  any  one  American 
college.  The  largest  class  was  the  Freshman,  numbering 
sixty.  ^  As  early  as  1780,  President  Madison  wrote  to  Dr. 
Stiles  that  the  number  of  students  in  William  and  Mary  was 
"more  considerable  than  heretofore"  and  was  increasing 
daily.  ^  But  the  proportion  seeking  the  ministry  remained 
low.  For  those  who  did  seek  it  the  situation  must  have  been 
anything  but  encouraging.  In  many  places  the  churches 
had  been  disorganized  and  impoverished.  By  the  end  of  the 
war  this  had  taken  place  among  the  Episcopalians  in  Vir- 
ginia to  an  almost  overwhelming  extent.  "•     It  seems  prob- 

'  At  Yale  the  decrease  is  seen  thus:  Candidates  for  the  ministry,  class  of 
1775.  12;  of  1776,  3;  of  1777,  7;  of  1778,  I  (Stiles,  Diary,  as  above,  p.  310).  At 
Princeton  in  1775  there  were,  in  a  class  of  twenty-seven,  ten  candidates;  in 
1783,  in  a  class  of  fourteen  there  were  two  candidates.  In  Nov.,  1779,  Stiles 
{Diary,  vol.  ii,  p.  389)  estimated  that  there  were  fewer  than  ninety  candidates 
in  New  England  with  probably  two  hundred  and  fifty  vacant  charges.  Writing 
on  Jan.  11,  1780,  he  gives  the  number,  including  "preachers  unsettled,"  as 
seventy-seven.  '  Stiles,  Diary,  vol.  iii,  p.  48. 

3  Stiles,  op.  cit.,  vol.  ii,  p.  448.  *  Meade,  W.,  op.  cit.,  vol.  i,  p.  17. 

In  October,  1775,  the  Synod  of  the  Dutch  Church  recorded  the  following 
action:  "By  reason  of  the  pitiful  condition  of  our  land,  the  consideration  of  the 
subject  of  the  Professorate  is  deferred"  {Centennial  Volume  of  the  Theological 
Seminary  of  the  Reformed  Church,  etc.,  p.  82).  Gotwald,  F.  G.,  Early  Ameri- 
can Lutheran  Theological  Education,  1745-1845,  p.  2:  "Dr.  Kunze's  plan  con- 
templated an  affiliation  between  the  work  of  the  proposed]  theological  semi- 
nary and  the  classical  department  of  the  University  of  Pennsylvania.  But  his 
fond  expectations  ended  in  disappointment  owing  largely  to  the  Revolutionary 
War." 


Training  of  the  Protestant  Ministry       171 


able  that  those  who  did  enter  the  ministry  during  this  period 
received  their  more  immediate  preparation  for  the  most  part 
from  pastors,  as  the  custom  was;  or,  among  the  Presbyter- 
ians, in  such  schools  as  that  of  Graham  in  Virginia. 

The  success  of  the  Revolution  also  affected  the  church 
life  of  the  country.  With  the  independence  of  the  Colonies 
the  connection  of  the  churches  with  the  parent  bodies  was 
definitely  and  finally  broken.  In  anticipation  of  it,  indeed, 
the  department  of  divinity  at  William  and  IMary  had  already 
been  abolished.^  On  the  other  hand,  it  is  after  this  that  the 
local  objections  to  an  American  episcopate  disappear,  "^  and 
the  Dutch  secure  full  ecclesiastical  autonomy.^  These 
events  soon  had  their  effect  in  efforts  for  the  local  training 
of  the  ministry.  The  year  after  the  close  of  the  War  was 
marked  by  the  establishment  by  the  Dutch  of  a  regular 
official  professorship  for  the  training  of  candidates  in  dis- 
tinctively theological  studies.'^  Ten  years  later  Service 
Seminary  (now  Xenia  Theological  Seminary)  was  founded 
by  the  Associate  Presbyter>^  of  Pennsylvania,  under  the 
influence  of  the  realization  of  the  self-dependent  character 
of  the  American  churches.  ^ 

(b)   The  Chairs  of  Divinity 

In  the  meanwhile,  however,  the  chairs  of  divinity  at 
Harvard,  Yale,  and  the  College  of  New  Jersey  had  been 

'  As  being  originally  intended  for  an  established  church ;  which  was  thought 
incompatible  with  a  republic.  See  letter  of  President  Madison  in  Stiles, 
Diary,  vol.  ii,  pp.  447,  448. 

"  Meade,  W.,  op.  cit.,  vol.  i,  p.  171 ;  American  Church  History  Series,  vol.  vii, 
p.  322  sq. 

3  American  Church  History  Series,  vol.  viii,  p.  176. 

■•  Memoirs  of  J.  H.  Livingston,  p.  274  n. 

'Johnson,  J.,  "Early  Theological  Education  West  of  the  Alleghanies" 
{Papers  of  the  American  Society  of  Church  History,  Second  Series,  vol.  v,  p.  123). 


172      Training  of  the  Protestant  Ministry 


doing  their  work.  *  They  had  not  been  left  without  students, 
despite  the  activity  of  the  private  instructor  in  theology,  and 
the  all  but  universal  patronage  accorded  him.  They  indeed 
continued  to  do  their  work  until  the  seminaries  absorbed 
them,  or  made  them  no  longer  necessary.  There  exists 
personal  testimony  to  the  character  and  method  of  this 
instruction,  some  of  which  has  been  found  available  for  this 
study.  It  concerns  the  work  of  two  contemporary  incum- 
bents of  chairs  of  divinity  in  the  closing  years  of  this  period. 
They  were  Samuel  Stanhope  Smith,  President  of  the  College 
of  New  Jersey,  1794-18 12,  and  Timothy  D wight,  President 
of  Yale,  1 795-1 8 1 7.  They  each  served  both  as  president 
and  as  professor  of  divinity  in  their  respective  institutions. 
Of  the  work  of  the  former.  Rev.  Philip  Lindsley,  D.D., 
President  of  the  University  of  Nashville,  writing  in  1848, 
says: 

The  "  Divinity  Class"  consisted,  in  my  time  [1807-10]  of  some 
eight  or  ten  young  men,  including  the  College  Tutors  ...  to 
whose  instruction  he  devoted  two  evenings  of  the  week.  He 
generally  read  a  certain  portion  of  his  Lectures  or  notes  as  he 
called  them;  and  dilated  upon  the  topics,  in  a  free,  colloquial 
style,  and  always  much  to  our  edification.  He  directed  our 
course  of  reading,  heard  our  essays,  and  suggested  subjects  for 
investigation,  dissertation,  or  oral  disputation.  The  course 
included  Theology,  ecclesiastical  history  and  polity,  pastoral 
duties,  the  Bible,  and  a  large  range  in  the  fields  of  classic  and 
general  literature.^ 

Of  the  work  of  Dr.  Dwight,  Professor  Denison  Olmsted, 
LL.D.,  a  member  of  a  select  class  that  recited  to  him  in 
theology,  wrote  in  1848: 

*  "It  should  be  said  that  despite  the  number  and  popularity  of  these  pri- 
vate schools,  the  earlier  practice  of  making  divinity  a  subject  of  post-graduate 
study  had  by  no  means  ceased"  (Simpson,  op.  cit.,  p.  127). 

'  Sprague,  op.  cit.,  vol.  iii,  p.  343. 


Training  of  the  Protestant  Ministry       173 


As  an  instructor,  it  is  not  easy  to  overrate  his  merits.  .  .  . 
He  urged  the  importance  of  observing  facts,  explained  the  prin- 
ciples of  association,  and  the  various  arts  which  would  contribute 
to  fix  them  in  the  mind,  and  also  displayed  in  his  reasonings  and 
illustrations  both  the  efficacy  of  his  rules,  and  the  utility  of  the 
practice  which  he  so  earnestly  recommended.  If  he  insisted  on 
thinking  in  a  train,  and  on  adhering  to  an  exact  method  in  the 
arrangement  of  one's  acquisitions,  and  in  communicating  his 
thoughts  to  others,  the  value  of  these  directions  he  proved  by 
the  readiness  with  which  he  assembled  his  own  thoughts  to 
elucidate  a  point  in  discussion,  and  the  clearness  with  which  he 
unfolded  them.^ 

Rev,  Professor  Nathaniel  Taylor,  D.D.,  also  of  Yale, 
wrote  in  1844  as  follows: 

I  may  notice  his  earnest  desire  and  vigorous  efforts  to  increase 
the  means  of  theological  education.  He  always  advised  and 
even  urged  young  men, — when  the  fashion  was  to  be  licensed 
to  preach  within  a  few  months,  or  even  weeks,  after  they  were 
graduated,  to  remain  and  study  Theology  at  least  for  one  or  two 
years.  ...  To  him,  I  think,  is  preeminently  to  be  traced  the 
great  progress  of  theological  education,  especially  in  New  Eng- 
land, for  the  last  thirty  or  forty  years." 

The  wider  range  of  the  instruction  given  by  these  chairs 
at  this  time,  as  contrasted  with  that  imparted  by  the  private 
teachers  of  theology,  is  one  of  the  most  obvious  inferences  to 
be  drawn  from  the  testimonies  of  those  who  had  studied 
under  the  respective  methods  which  have  been  presented 
here.  It  is  also  evident  that  one  of  the  influences  corrective 
of  the  tendency  to  a  short  and  meager  theological  course 

'  Sprague,  op.  ciL,  vol.  ii,  p.  i6o. 

'  Ibid.,  p.  161  sq.  This  is  given  as  the  opinion  of  Dr.  Taylor  who  indeed 
himself  safeguards  it  with  the  parenthetical  "  I  think."  It  is  quoted  here  as  an 
estimate  made  by  high  authority  of  the  influence  of  the  chairs  of  divinity.  If 
the  discussion  were  to  proceed  to  discover  all  the  influences  contributing  to  the 
progress  of  education,  other  names  would  certainly  require  mention. 


174      Training  of  the  Protestant  Ministry 


was  the  chair  of  divinity  in  the  colleges.  The  men  who  went 
into  the  ministry  at  this  period  were,  as  a  rule,  college 
graduates.  And  the  professor  of  divinity,  especially  if  he 
were,  as  was  the  case  with  Smith  and  Dwight,  also  the  head 
of  the  college,  had  a  special  opportunity  for  influencing  them 
to  take  the  more  extensive  preparation  offered  by  the  divinity 
chair.  No  doubt  this  influence  would  have  been  exercised 
at  an  earlier  period  more  than  it  appears  to  have  been,  had 
it  been  realized  then,  as  Dr.  Dwight  in  his  time  realized, 
that  the  actual  standard  for  the  technical  education  of  the 
ministry  was  being  steadily  and  damagingly  lowered,  and 
that  one  of  the  forces  contributing  to  this  was  the  practice 
of  private  instruction,  which  was  after  all  merely  a  combina- 
tion of  tutorial  methods  with  actual  apprenticeship. 

(c)  The  Beginnings  of  Theological  Seminaries 

A  full  discussion  of  the  origin  of  the  theological  semi- 
naries lies  beyond  the  scope  of  this  study.  But  their  first 
appearance  lies  within  its  chronological  limits,  and  therefore 
demands  a  notice.  It  is  perhaps  sufficient  merely  to  set 
down  here  the  chief  facts  concerning  the  first  seminaries. 
The  earliest  step  toward  the  establishment  of  such  an  in- 
stitution was,  as  already  stated,  the  election  by  the  Synod 
of  the  Dutch  Reformed  Church  of  its  first  official  Professors. 
This  took  place  in  May,  1784.  Dr.  Joannes  H.  Livingston 
was  chosen  Professor  of  Sacred  Theology,  and  Dr.  Her- 
manus  Meyer  Instructor  in  the  "Inspired  Languages," 
at  the  same  meeting  at  which  action  was  taken  declaring 
"that  studies  preparatory  to  Theology  are  'absolutely 
necessary,'"  and  pledging  earnest  support  to  Queen's  Col- 
lege. It  was  voted  also  to  aid  in  the  establishment  of  a 
college  at  Schenectady,  N.  Y.'    Some  ten  years  after  this, 

I  Centennial  Volume  of  the  Theological  Seminary  of  the  Reformed  Church,  etc., 
p.  83 ;  Memoirs  of  J.  H.  Livingston,  p.  273. 


Training  of  the  Protestant  Ministry       175 


that  is  in  1 794,  the  United  Presbyterians  founded  the  second 
Protestant  theological  seminary  in  the  country.  ^  And  be- 
fore the  end  of  the  century  the  ideas  were  already  power- 
fully at  work  which  early  in  the  following  one  issued  in  the 
activities  which  finally  accomplished  the  establishment  of 
Andover,  Princeton,  and  Union  in  Virginia. 

{d)  Certai?!  Characteristics  of  the  History  of  Ministerial 
Training  During  the  Eighteenth  Century 

Among  the  noticeable  features  of  the  history  of  minis- 
terial training  in  America  in  the  century  just  considered, may 
be  mentioned  the  following,  (i)  As  a  period  in  this  history 
the  century  is  marked  by  movement  and  development.  It 
was  a  time  of  the  attainment  of  American  self-consciousness ; 
and,  while  its  earlier  decades  manifest  no  sense  of  separate- 
ness  from  the  mother  country,  yet  even  they  are  marked 
by  a  development  of  American  education.  Allowing  for  the 
foreign-trained  Anglicans  and  Dutch,  and  for  the  first  pastors 
of  the  Presbyterian  immigration,  the  ministry  in  this  century 
is  more  and  more  American  in  training.     (2)  The  pressure 

'  American  Church  History  Series,  vol.  xi,  p.  176. 

Clark,  Calvin  M.,  History  of  Bangor  TJieological  Seminary,  p.  19  n.,  18: 
''Of  these  [sc.  theological  seminaries]  there  were  three,  New  Brunswick, 
established  1784."  Johnson,  Jesse,  "Early  Theological  Education  West  of 
the  Alleghanies"  {Papers  of  the  American  Society  oj  Church  History,  Second 
Series,  vol.  v,  p.  123):  "Until  1784  there  was  no  theological  seminary  in 
America.  New  Brunswick  Seminary  began  its  honorable  career  in  New  York 
City  in  that  year."  It  is  true  that  both  of  these,  the  first  and  second  Pro- 
testant Seminaries,  were,  at  the  beginning,  one-man  institutions.  But  since 
it  is  rather  the  function  than  the  size  of  an  institution,  that  should  determine 
its  character,  it  appears  only  proper  to  abide  by  the  classification  given  these 
schools  here.  To  do  otherwise  would  be  to  deny  the  title  of  seminary  also  to 
the  first  stages  of  the  Associate  Reformed  Seminary  in  New  York  City,  the 
Reformed  Presbyterian  Seminary  in  Philadelphia,  Princeton  Seminary,  the 
Associate  Reformed  Seminary  in  Pittsburgh,  and  Union  Seminary  at  Hamp- 
den-Sidney  (now  in  Richmond),  Virginia.  See  Johnson,  J.,  op.  cit.,  p.  124;  and 
Moore,  W.  W.  and  Scherer,  Tilden,  The  Centennial  Catalogue  of  the  Trustees, 
Officers,  Professors  and  Alumni  of  Union  Theological  Seminary  in  Virginia,  p.  8. 


176      Training  of  the  Protestant  Ministry 


of  practical  work,  as  the  Church  then  understood  it,  became 
very  strong  before  the  middle  of  the  century,  and  again 
towards  the  end  of  it,  and  each  time  tended  to  hasten  men 
into  the  work  of  the  ministry.  (3)  The  method  of  private 
teaching  in  immediate  preparation  for  the  ministry  was 
characteristic  of  the  last  half  of  the  century,  the  courses 
under  this  system  being,  as  a  rule,  short,  and  the  method 
of  instruction  somewhat  desultory.  (4)  On  the  whole  it 
appears  that,  except  in  the  case  of  the  Dutch  Reformed, 
there  took  place  in  the  course  of  the  century  a  general  lower- 
ing of  the  requirement  as  to  specifically  theological  training. 
(5)  The  latter  part  of  the  century  manifests  the  presence  of 
influences  that  tended  to  counteract  this.'  (6)  Through- 
out the  century  the  standard  of  collegiate  requirement  for 
the  ministry  remains  unchanged,  and  the  practice  was  to 
require  a  college  training  or  an  equivalent.  * 

'  These  influences  were  not  organized  as  yet,  but  individual,  as  in  the  case 
of  Dwight,  cited  above.  Yet  the  Dutch  Church  took  action  in  1788,  requiring 
that  all  students  before  entering  upon  theological  studies  should  have  either  a 
B.A.  degree,  or  pass  an  examination  by  a  committee  of  the  Synod  in  the 
"languages,  arts,  and  sciences  which  are  ordinarily  required  in  the  American 
colleges  for  the  procuring  of  said  degree"  {Minutes  of  the  General  Synod  of  the 
Reformed  Protestant  Dutch  Church,  p.  179). 

But  the  requirement  in  the  Episcopal  Church  was  fixed  in  1789  to  consist 
of  sufficient  acquaintance  with  the  New  Testament  in  the  original  Greek  to 
read  it,  and  ability  on  the  part  of  the  candidate  to  give  an  account  of  his  faith, 
in  the  Latin  tongue,  either  in  writing,  or  otherwise;  but  in  the  same  canon 
vii  provision  was  made  for  the  dispensation  from  either  or  both  these  language 
requirements  {Journal  of  the  General  Conventions  of  the  Protestant  Episcopal 
Church  in  the  U.  S.  A.,  from  the  year  1784  to  the  year  18 14  inclusive,  p.  96). 
See  also  the  "Course  of  Ecclesiastical  Studies,  established  by  the  House  of 
Bishops  in  the  Convention  of  1804  "  {ibid.,  pp.  345-350). 

For  the  ideals  of  the  later  portion  of  the  period  in  England  the  lists  and 
schemes  of  "heads"  by  Bentham,  Bennett,  Dupin,  Wilkins,  and  Ryland,  are 
very  interesting.  Generally,  questions  of  pure  theology  seem  to  have  the 
larger  place  in  these. 

'  A  study  of  the  lists  of  the  ministers  in  Connecticut  and  Massachusetts 
shows  that  it  was  not  until  well  after  1800  that  it  became  at  all  frequent  in 
those  states  to  have  ministers  who  lacked  college  degrees. 


Training  of  the  Protestant  Ministry       i77 


m 

CONCLUSION 


I.    Two  Special  Features  of  the  Training  of  the 
Whole  Period 

The  study  of  the  whole  period  has  revealed  two  distinc- 
tive features  not  yet  mentioned,  but  which  seem  to  call  for 
special  notice. 

{a)  The  Relation  of  the  Ministry  to  Medicine 

The  first  pertains  to  the  relation  of  the  ministry  to 
medicine,  and  is  significant  as  illustrating  the  breadth  and 
range  of  attainment  which  in  many  instances  characterized 
the  individual  ministers  of  the  two  centuries  under  investiga- 
tion, and  which  is  no  longer  at  all  a  feature  of  the  ministerial 
life  of  to-day. 

There  are,  indeed,  many  cases  in  which  the  ministers  of 
this  period  became  more  or  less  expert  in  branches  of  knowl- 
edge outside  their  special  sphere.  They  were  frequently 
successful  farmers,  skilled  horticulturists,  effective  teachers, 
now  and  then  lawyers,  and  often  mathematicians  of  high 
attainment.  Some  of  them  proved  themselves  far-sighted 
business  men,  while  others  were  distinguished  civilians.  In 
nearly  all  of  these  spheres,  ministers  of  to-day  are  frequently 
found,  many  of  them  very  efficient. '  But  the  special  sphere 
of  their  extra-clerical  activity  in  the  period  before  us  was 
that  of  medicine.  Writing  of  John  Rogers,  who  graduated 
at  Harvard  in  1659,  Sprague^  says  that  he  "studied,  as 
was  not  uncommon  in  his  time,  both  medicine  and  divinity." 
While  the  fact  of  the  practice  and  its  commonness  is  thus 

'  As  will  occur  to  any  one  familiar  with  the  Middle  West.    The  cause  is  by 
no  means  always  "economic  pressure." 
*  Annals,  vol.  i,  p.  146. 


178       Training  of  the  Protestant  Ministry 


evidently  recognized,  yet  it  does  not  seem  to  have  received 
the  emphasis  which  it  deserves.  Among  the  more  prominent 
ministers  of  the  whole  period  who  had  studied  medicine 
were  John  Ward,  John  Fiske,  Isaac  and  Ichabod  Chauncy, 
Cotton  Mather,  Thomas  Thacher,  John  Rogers,  Jared  Eliot, 
Michael  and  Samuel  Wigglesworth,  John  Graham,  Thomas 
Smith,  Christopher  Tappan,  Samuel  Haven,  Samuel  Eaton, 
Nathaniel  Niles,  Manasseh  Cutler,  Jonathan  French,  Jona- 
than Dickinson,  Gilbert  Tennent,  Jonathan  Parsons,  David 
Cowell,  Jacob  Green,  Samuel  Kennedy,  Matthew  Wilson, 
David  Caldwell,  David  McCalla,  Thomas  Reese,  Joseph 
Badger,  Nash  Legrand,  James  Welch,  Lewis  F.  Wilson,  and 
John  Poage  Campbell.  It  will  be  observed  that  the  list 
extends  from  practically  the  beginning  of  the  English 
settlements  to,  and  past,  the  end  of  the  period,^  Some 
of  them,  indeed,  never  practiced  as  physicians;  but  others 
of  them,  as  Thacher  and  Eliot,  were  physicians  of  distinction 
in  the  profession  itself.  The  emphasis  which  the  fact  of  this 
large  participation  of  the  ministry  in  the  work  of  another 
profession  has  especially  failed  to  receive  is  that  which  it 
should  have  in  its  relation  to  the  breadth  of  the  ministerial 
culture. 

While  it  is  not  contended  that  a  knowledge  of  medicine 
was  ever,  during  this  period,  considered  an  essential  part  of 
the  equipment  of  the  ministry,  yet  the  possession  of  such 
knowledge  by  so  many  ministers  actually  extends  the  area 
of  the  culture  of  their  class  as  a  whole.  And  this  is  the  more 
significant,  since  it  is  probably  not  true  that  the  converse 
was  the  case :  that  is,  it  does  not  seem  that  physicians  were  at 
all  so  frequently  technically  informed  in  theology  as  the 
ministers  were  in  medicine.  Nor  does  it  appear  that  lawyers 
furnished  so  significant  a  number  of  either  physicians  or 
theologians.  That  is,  the  other  two  professions,  counted 
with  the  ministry  as  "learned,"  were  not  distinguished  by 

'  It  is  not  confined  to  any  section,  either. 


Training  of  the  Protestant  Ministry       179 


the  same  versatility  in  their  individual  membership  as  the 
ministry.  The  practical  bearing  of  the  minister's  acquaint- 
ance with  medicine  is  obvious  and  important,  but  beyond 
the  scope  of  this  inquiry. 

(b)  The  Marnier  of  Delivering  Sermons 

The  other  special  feature  of  the  ministerial  training  of  the 
period  has  to  do  with  the  practical  work  of  the  pulpit.  It  is 
the  method  of  the  delivery  of  sermons.  At  Harvard  and 
Yale  public  declamation  was  a  part  of  the  regular  under- 
graduate training.  This  was  also  the  case,  at  least  to  some 
extent,  in  the  English  universities. '  Cotton  Mather  writes 
of  John  Warham,  who  came  to  New  England  in  1639,  as 
follows : 

I  suppose  that  the  first  preacher  that  ever  preached  with 
notes  in  our  New  England  was  the  Rev.  Warham;  who,  though 
he  were  sometimes  faulted  for  it  by  some  judicious  men  who  had 
never  heard  him,  yet  when  once  they  came  to  hear  him,  they 
could  not  but  admire  the  notable  energy  of  his  ministry.^ 

Mather's  uncle,  Nathaniel  Mather,  wrote  to  him : 

I  had  forgot  to  say  to  yourself  by  any  means  get  to  preach 
without  any  use  or  help  by  your  notes.  When  I  was  in  New 
England,  no  man  that  I  remember  used  them  except  one,  and  he 
because  of  a  special  infirmity,  the  vertigo,  as  I  take  it,  or  some 
specie  of  it.  Neither  of  your  Grandfathers  [Richard  Mather  and 
John  Cotton]  used  any,  nor  did  your  uncle  [Samuel  Mather] 
here,  nor  doe  I,  though  wee  both  of  us  write  generally  the  mate- 
rialls  of  all  our  sermons.^ 

Increase  Mather  has  in  his  diary  this  entry  (p.  2 1 ) :  "  Study ed 
(and  also  committed  to  memory)  a  whole  sermon  ye  day."'' 

■  At  Pembroke  College.     See  above,  note  i ,  page  97. 
'  Sprague,  op.  cit.,  vol.  i,  p.  11. 

3  "  Diary  of  Cotton  Mather, "  vol.  i,  p.  5,  note  (in  Mass.  Hist.  Coll.). 
^  I.  Mather,  Diary,  March  i6^5~December,  i6y6,  .  .  .     With  Introduction 
and  Notes  by  Samuel  A.  Green. 


i8o      Training  of  the  Protestant  Ministry 


In  his  advice  to  students  Cotton  Mather  says: 

If  you  must  have  your  notes  before  you  in  preaching,  and  it 
be  needful,  for  you,  De  scripto  dicere, — yet  let  there  be  with  you  a 
distinction  between  the  neat  using  of  notes,  and  the  dull  reading 
of  them.  How  can  you  demand  of  them  to  remember  much  of 
what  you  bring  to  them;  when  you  remember  nothing  of  it  your- 
self? Besides  by  reading  all  you  say  you  will  so  cramp  and  blunt 
all  ability  for  speaking  that  you  will  be  unable  to  make  an  hand- 
some speech  on  any  occasion. ' 

Sereno  Edwards  Dwight  wrote  that  Timothy  Edwards 
( 1 669-1 758)  "always  preached  extemporaneously,  and, 
until  he  was  upwards  of  seventy,  without  noting  down  the 
heads  of  his  discourse."^  Nehemiah  Walter  (i 688-1 750), 
according  to  Sprague,  "preached  a  few  years  after  his 
settlement  without  a  manuscript,  according  to  the  custom 
of  the  day;  but,  his  memory  having  been  impaired  by  a 
severe  illness,  he  was  obliged  from  that  time  to  keep  his 
manuscript  before  him."^  Simon  Bradstreet  (i 697-1 741) 
used  no  notes.  ^  Samuel  Moody,  of  the  same  period  precisely, 
wrote  little,  and  read  less  in  the  pulpit.  ^  Nathaniel  Chauncy, 
according  to  Prof.  Fowler,  of  Amherst,  wrote  his  sermons 
carefully,  but  carried  no  paper  of  any  kind  into  the  pulpit. 
His  date  is  1706-56.  ^ 

There  are  many  other  instances  of  the  same  kind  recorded 
of  the  early  period  of  the  pulpit  in  New  England.  But  Dr. 
George  Leon  Walker,  writing  of  the  practice  at  the  time  of 
the  Awakening,  says :  ' '  The  ministers  of  New  England  at  this 
period,  with  very  few  exceptions,  preached  from  closely 
written  manuscripts  which  must  generally  have  been  held 
in  the  hand,  and  often  near  to  the  eyes. " '     It  is  not  intended 

'  Manductio  ad  Ministerium,  p.  114. 
»  Quoted  in  Sprague,  op.  cit.,  i,  p.  232. 

^  Ibid.,  p.  218.  *  Ibid.,  p.  242.  ^  Ibid.,  p.  246. 

Ibid.,  p.  264.  ''As  cited,  p.  92. 


Training  of  the  Protestant  Ministry       i8i 


to  contradict  this  high  authority,  especially  as  the  statement 
is  carefully  confined  to  New  England.  But  I  venture  to 
remark  that  the  exceptions  do  seem  somewhat  more  numer- 
ous than  the  words  ' '  very  few ' '  would  suggest.  And  I  would 
also  call  attention  to  the  inferential  character  of  the  judg- 
ment as  to  the  use  of  the  closely  written  manuscripts ;  that  is, 
the  expression,  "which  must  generally  have  been  held  in  the 
hand,  and  often  very  close  to  the  eyes."  And  in  connection 
with  this  I  would  adduce  a  remark  of  similar  import  made 
by  Rev.  Samuel  Sewall,  of  Burlington,  Me.,  who,  writing  of 
Rev.  Henry  Gibbs,  who  was  ordained  at  Watertown,  Mass., 
in  1697,  says: 

The  author  of  this  Article  has  a  fragment  of  a  sermon  [of 
Gibbs].  ...  So  near  together  are  the  lines  of  this  manuscript, 
that  in  some  place  fourteen  of  them,  and  seventeen,  eighteen,  and 
even  nineteen  in  others  are  crowded  into  a  space  of  one  inch  in 
breadth.  The  writing  in  these  lines  is  of  a  corresponding  fineness : 
...  But  of  what  use  the  mansucript  containing  them  could 
have  been  to  its  worthy  author  in  the  pulpit,  is  difficult  to  con- 
ceive; each  page  of  it,  at  a  small  distance  from  the  eye,  appearing 
but  little  other  than  one  uniform  blur.^ 

Now  it  will  be  observed  that  this  manuscript  was  of  the  very 
period  of  which  Sprague,  whose  authority  on  this  subject 
is  at  least  worthy  of  respect,  says  that  to  preach  "without 
a  manuscript"  was  "according  to  the  custom  of  the  time" 
(see  above  in  the  reference  to  Nehemiah  Walter).  And  it  is 
carefully  described  as  of  no  conceivable  use  for  reading  in  the 
pulpit.  Is  not  the  natural  and  proper  inference,  then,  that 
it  was  not  so  used,  and  never  intended  to  be?  Neither  Dr. 
Walker,  nor  Mr.  Sewall,  adduces  any  evidence,  though  such 
may  exist,  for  the  inference  that  these  old  manuscripts  were 
held  very  near  the  eyes,  and  so  read  to  the  congregation, 
except  that  they  could  not  be  read  in  any  other  way;  and 

'  American  Quarterly  Register  for  1842,  p.  254. 


i82       Training  of  the  Protestant  Ministry 


Mr.  Sewall,  at  least,  seems  to  believe  that,  somehow,  even 
one  that  was  practically  illegible  when  so  handled  was 
nevertheless  so  used.  May  it  not  rather  be  that  these  writers 
have  allowed  themselves  to  be  influenced  by  the  practice 
of  a  later  time,  and  to  conclude  that  because  then  written 
sermons  were  also  read  sermons,  they  were  always  so?  Some 
support  for  this  explanation  of  their  apparent  reasoning  is 
the  rather  general  assumption  that  appears  to  prevail,  even 
in  quarters  where  more  accurate  information  should  be 
expected,  that  any  speech  delivered  to-day  without  manu- 
script or  notes  is  therefore  ''ex  tempore.'' 

At  any  rate  there  is  positive  testimony  that  the  first 
ministers  of  New  England  preached  as  a  rule  without  manu- 
script or  notes,  though  not  therefore  extemporaneously. 
And  there  appears  reason  to  believe  that  this  custom  con- 
tinued well  into  the  eighteenth  century,  though  the  practice 
of  reading  did  finally  supersede  it,  and  became  indeed 
characteristic  of  the  New  England  pulpit.  As  to  this  being 
the  fact  by  the  latter  part  of  the  eighteenth  century,  we  have 
the  personal  testimony  of  Rev.  Eliphalet  Nott.  Writing  of 
his  visit,  in  the  summer  of  1795,  to  President  Smith  (a 
Presbyterian),  of  Union  College,  in  New  York,  he  says: 
"Coming  as  I  did  from  Connecticut  where  the  discourses 
of  the  clergy  were,  for  the  most  part,  argumentative,  written 
discourses,  and  read  calmly  and  deliberately  from  the  pulpit, 
the  impassioned  and  extemporaneous  efforts  of  Dr.  Smith 
filled  me  alike  with  admiration  and  amazement."'  As  early 
as  the  time  of  Cotton  Mather's  Mandiictio  the  practice  of 
reading  sermons,  or  of  a  large  use  of  notes  in  delivering  them, 
had  become  sufficiently  noticeable  in  New  England  to 
justify,  as  has  been  seen,  the  inclusion  in  that  book  of  a 
warning  against  it.  Outside  of  New  England,  and  perhaps 
outside  of  Congregationalism  generally  in  America,  the 
practice  seems  all  along  to  have  been  more  after  the  manner 

'  In  Sprague,  Annals,  vol.  iii,  p.  404. 


Training  of  the  Protestant  Ministry       183 


illustrated  by  the  case  of  President  Smith  just  mentioned. 
For  it  is  recorded  that  in  1699  Joseph  Morgan,  a  Presby- 
terian, of  Bradford,  N.  Y.,  "when  he  commenced  preaching 
— contrary  to  the  practice  of  the  times,  he  used  notes;  but 
some  of  his  brethren  protested  against  it  so  strongly,  that 
he  quickly  abandoned  them." ^  Indeed  the  data  available 
seem  to  justify  the  conclusion  that  freedom  from  the  use  of 
the  manuscript  which  characterized  the  ministry  of  New 
England  in  the  early  times  continued  to  be  generally  mani- 
fested in  other  sections  of  the  country,  and  among  the 
Presbyterians  especially,  even  after  it  had  become  the 
exception  among  the  New  England  Congregationalists.  ^ 

2.    General  Features  of  the  Training  of  the 
Whole  Period 

There  are  also  certain  general  features  of  the  training 
of  the  ministry  during  this  whole  period  which  appear  to 
deserve  special  notice  in  a  summary  of  its  characteiistics. 

(a)  The  Training  Always  Intended  to  Meet  a  Need 

In  the  first  place,  the  training  was  always  intended  to 
meet  a  need.  This  appeared  in  two  phases.  One  pertained 
to  the  ministry  as  related  to  the  people.  It  was  firmly  held 
throughout  this  period  that  the  people  needed  a  ministry, 
and  one  competent  to  discharge  efficiently  its  natural  func- 
tion, a  large  part  of  which  was  conceived  to  consist  in  in- 
struction, and  this  in  a  special  sphere.  For  the  ministry 
was  not  considered  among  Protestants  as  a  priesthood  in  any 
such  sense  as  would  rendeir  its  officiation  all  that  was  neces- 
sary regardless  of  the  special  competency  of  its  members, 
any  more  than  of  their  personal  character.    Learning  was  as 

'  Sprague,  Annals,  vol.  iii,  p.  19  note. 

'  See  the  unsystematic  essay  of  William  Spooner  Smith  [1821-1916],  Ser- 
mon Reading,  from  the  Notebook  of  an  Octogenarian  Traveller,  Boston,  1916. 


i84      Training  of  the  Protestant  Ministry 


necessary  as  godliness.  The  idea  that  a  trained  ministry 
was  a  necessity  was  expressed  by  the  community  of  early 
America  without  sectional  or  denominational  exceptions; 
through  its  civil,  as  well  as  its  ecclesiastical,  representatives 
and  institutions.  Indeed,  in  the  case  of  Virginia  and  the 
New  Netherlands,  it  was  recognized  even  by  the  trading 
companies  through  which  these  colonies  were  founded  and 
for  a  long  time  promoted.  The  reports  of  the  early  efforts  to 
secure  a  competent  ministry  according  to  this  conception 
contain  sufficient  evidence  of  this  generally  recognized  fact. 
The  other  phase  in  which  the  need  of  special  training  for 
the  ministry  appeared  pertained  to  the  minister  as  one 
eissaying  to  do  a  special  kind  of  work.  Theology  was  recog- 
nized' as  a  science,  special  training  in  which  was  necessary 
to  one  who  would  be  thoroughly  furnished  to  impart  its 
truth;  and  this  was  regarded  as  the  chief  function  of  the 
minister.  The  Scriptures,  furthermore,  were  considered  the 
sole  source  of,  and  authority  for,  all  that  might  be  presented 
as  Christian  theology.  It  was,  therefore,  necessary  to  under- 
stand them.  Since  these  were  written  in  languages  alien  to 
the  pe'ople,  special  knowledge  of  these  tongues  was  thought 
needful  to  one  who  would  interpret  them  with  certainty. 
Besides  these  considerations,  it  is  scarcely  to  be  doubted  that 
in  the  period  of  the  founding  of  the  American  colonies  there 
was  generally  held  the  conviction  that  Christianity  presented 
a  "world-view, "  and  (which  may  account  for  the  less  clear 
and  forceful  assertion  of  the  conviction)  the  only  true  one. 
So  it  followed  logically  (at  least  in  the  opinion  of  the  writer) 
that  men  like  Cotton  Mather  and  Thomas  Bray,  who  were 
especially  engaged  in  determining  what  should  constitute  the 
proper  scholastic  training  for  the  ministry,  insisted  on  the 
universality  of  the  range  of  the  studies  which  should  form 
the  curriculum  of  this  training.  So  also  a  college  training  as 
broad  as  the  age  afforded  was,  even  after  the  colleges  had 
ceased  to  be  places  chiefly  for  ministerial  training,  held 


Training  of  the  Protestant  Ministry       185 


throughout  this  period  to  be  necessary  to  a  proper  prepara- 
tion of  a  minister.  Nor  was  this  only  a  local,  New  England, 
or  American,  opinion.  So  far  was  it  from  being  a  mere  self- 
preservative  method  of  a  New  England  priestly  class,  as 
Mr.  Brooks  Adams'  seems  to  contend,  that  it  was  univer- 
sally recognized  by  all  parties  in  America  which  conceived 
of  the  ministry  as  a  source  and  instrument  of  special  in- 
struction for  the  Church  and  community,  and  that  it  was, 
indeed,  a  Protestant  principle,  held  in  England  and  on  the 
Continent  as  universally  as  in  America. 

{b)  The  Training  Always  Intended  to  be  as  Broad  as  the 
University  Training  oj  the  Time 

It  seems  also  fairly  evident  that  the  training  of  the  min- 
istry consisted,  at  least  in  its  preliminary  parts,  of  the  best 
college  training  obtainable,  and  that,  as  a  class,  the  minis- 
ters were  the  best  educated  men  in  their  communities,  and 
that  any  lowering  of  the  standard  in  the  more  technical 
preparation  which  may  have  occurred  did  not  take  place 
until  in  the  later  portion  of  the  period. 

(c)   The  Actual  Training  Affected  by  Certain  Circumstances 
and  Movements 

It  also  appears  that  the  training  given  was,  despite  the 
constant  ideal,  affected  both  in  its  method  and  in  its  stand- 
ard, by  certain  forces,  more  or  less  generally  operative  at 
different  times  in  the  country.  These  were  due  to  both 
spiritual  and  intellectual  movements,  operating  chiefly  in 
the  religious  sphere,  such  as  the  revivals,  and  the  interest  in 
dogmatic  theology  (especially  in  New  England) ;  to  civil  and 
political  developments,  such  as  the  Revolutionary  War,  and 
the  independence  of  the  colonies;  and  to  social  and  economic 
conditions  arising  out  of  the  various  stages  of  the  material 

■  See  his  Emancipation  of  Massachusetts,  chapter  ix. 


i86      Training  of  the  Protestant  Ministry 


history  of  the  country,  as,  for  instance,  the  extension  of  the 
frontier,  and  the  presence,  or  absence,  of  faciHties  for  trans- 
portation, trade,  and  the  like. 

3.     Suggested  Conclusion 

In  view  of  the  whole  study,  the  following  general  con- 
clusions are  suggested. 

(a)  As  to  the  Maintenance  oj  the  Standard 

It  seems  that  at  the  beginning  the  standard  of  minis- 
terial training  was  quite  definite.  In  Virginia  it  was  recog- 
nized as  being  the  highest  held  in  theory,  at  least,  by  the 
Anglican  Church;  in  New  Netherlands,  it  was  the  very 
definite  and  high  requirement  of  the  Reformed  Church  of 
Holland;  and  in  New  England,  it  was  that  of  English  Non- 
conformity at  its  best.  At  a  later  period  the  Presbyterian 
Church  brought  also  a  definite  requirement,  similar  to,  if  not 
identical  with,  that  of  the  Dutch  Church.  Until  a  little 
before  the  middle  of  the  eighteenth  century  it  seems  that 
this  academic  standard  was  well  sustained  in  actual  practice, 
except,  perhaps,  in  Virginia  and  Maryland,  where  among  the 
Anglicans,  it  seems,  while  not  universally,  yet  somewhat 
generally,  to  have  been  lowered,  i.e.,  in  practice,  but  not  at 
all  in  theory.'  After  the  first  forty  years  of  the  century 
there  can  be  traced  a  steady  tendency  toward  a  practically 
lowered  standard  of  actual  preparation  immediately  for  the 
work  of  the  pastorate.  This  did  not,  however,  affect  the 
demand  for  the  regular  preparatory  studies  preliminary  to 
those  of  theology.     The  shortened  course  of  theological 

'  Of  a  tota  Jo  fsome  three  hundred  and  eighty  missionaries  o    the  S.  P.  G. 

ent  to  colonial  America  from  1701  to  the  Revolution  somewhat  fewer  than  one 

third  appear  from  the  lists  in  The  Classified  Digest  of  the  Society  as  possessing 

college  degrees.     See  the  Classified  Digest  of  the  Records  of  the  Society  for  the 

Propagation  of  the  Gospel  in  Foreign  Parts,  I70i-i8g2  (Second  Edition). 


Training  of  the  Protestant  Ministry       187 


training  appears  especially  among  the  Congregationalists, 
and  also  extensively  among  the  Presbyterians.  It  seems  that, 
on  the  whole,  the  Dutch  Church  was  the  only  one  of  the 
denominations  here  considered  to  maintain  its  standard 
wholly  unimpaired;  and  this  was  due  to  foreign  cont  rol. 

(b)  As  to  the  Standard  in  Comparison  with  that  of 
Other  Professions 

The  fact  that  there  were  just  two  other  professions 
besides  the  ministry  which  in  this  period  were  given  the 
title  of  "learned"  suggests  at  once  a  comparison  of  the  re- 
quirements of  the  time  for  these. 

To  make  this  with  thoroughness  is  more  than  the  task 
originally  set.  But  the  main  facts  involved  in  such  a  com- 
parison may  be  noted.  It  seems  generally  agreed  that  there 
was  no  academic  requirement  for  the  practice  of  law  through- 
out this  period,  although  the  earlier  lawyers  of  the  country 
probably  were  as  a  rule  men  of  education.  But  though  the 
first  law  school  in  America  was  established  in  1784,  there 
were  no  entrance  examinations  required  for  admission  to  any 
of  them  prior  to  1877,  and  it  was  not  until  after  1890  that 
more  than  one  demanded  more  than  an  equivalent  of  what 
was  required  for  matriculation  in  a  college  at  that  time.  It  is 
said  of  the  legal  education  offered  within  these  schools  that 
"for  the  first  half  century  of  legal  education  in  this  country, 
the  courses  in  the  law  schools  were  for  the  most  part  loosely 
organized ;  .  .  .  and  in  many  cases  no  definitely  prescribed 
amount  of  work  was  required  for  graduation. ' ' '  It  is  matter 
of  common  knowledge  that  the  law  office  of  a  practicing 
lawyer  was  the  place  of  the  preparation  of  many,  probably 
most,  of  the  lawyers  of  this  country  in  the  past. 

It  seems  that  the  earlier  physicians  were  college  men. 
But  "the  medical  schools  of  colonial  days  in  America  were 

'  Dexter,  History  of  Education  in  the  U.  S.,  p.  325. 


i88       Training  of  the  Protestant  Ministry 


the  offices  of  the  practicing  physicians. ' ' '  Centers  of  special 
instruction  arose  from  1745  to  1750. 

The  first  profession  in  America  for  which  there  was  re- 
quired and  provided  a  technical  and  standardized  training, 
and  for  which  a  college  training  preceding  the  strictly  pro- 
fessional education  was  made  necessary,  was  the  ministry. 
And  when  the  offices  of  the  lawyer  and  physician  were  the 
usual  training  places  of  the  other  two  professions,  the  private 
instruction  of  the  minister  was  still  exceptional.  It  is  also 
to  be  remembered  that  the  collegiate  education  obtained  by 
those  students  of  law  or  of  medicine  who  had  such  training 
was  precisely  that  which  was  held  as  necessary  for  the  pre- 
liminary training  of  those  who  would  enter  the  ministry. 
Indeed,  if  it  be  true,  as  is  often  intimated,  that  the  collegiate 
training  obtainable  in  America  was  so  much  intended  for  the 
prospective  minister  that  it  was  somewhat  vitiated  as  a 
course  of  general  academic  training,  it  seems  to  follow  that 
the  lawyers  and  physicians  who  were  compelled  to  take  it, 
or  do  without  any,  were  after  all,  so  far  as  their  collegiate 
courses  were  concerned,  at  the  very  best  not  so  well  prepared 
for  their  professional  study  as  were  those  who  went  from 
college  to  the  study  of  theology.  At  the  very  least  it  is 
scarcely  fair  to  specify  "the  requirement  for  the  church" 
of  that  day  as  not  being  "broad,  "^  when  it  was  not  less 
broad  in  its  preliminary  requirement  than  the  best  prepara- 
tory training  to  be  obtained  at  all  even  by  those  ambitious 
students  who  insisted  on  having  a  training  for  the  other 
professions,  entrance  to  which  was  by  no  means  conditioned 
upon  their  possession  of  such  training. 

Any  stricture  upon  the  higher  education  of  earlier 
America,  however  just,  cannot  be  fairly  confined  in  its  appli- 
cation to  only  one  class  of  those  whose  best  opportunity  it 

•  Dexter,  History  of  Education  in  the  U.S.,  p.  325. 

'Parker,  Irene,  Dissenting  Academies  of  England,  1662-1800,  c.  p.  55: 
"Naturally  the  theological  course  was  the  most  important;  it  was  wide,"  etc. 


Training  of  the  Protestant  Ministry       189 


alone  afforded;  and  still  less,  to  that  class  which  alone  was 
actually  required  to  have  it  as  an  essential  qualification  for 
its  work. 

(c)  As  to  the  Achievement  in  Relation  to  Training 

To  determine  the  relative  merits  of  different  methods  of 
ministerial  training  is  beyond  the  scope  of  this  study,  al- 
though some  variation  of  method  has  been  noted  in  the 
attempt  to  follow  the  history.  But  it  seems  not  out  of  place 
to  note  a  fact  in  this  connection  which  has  been  revealed  by 
the  study.  It  is  that,  at  least  for  a  certain  class  of  students, 
any  one  of  the  methods  that  appear  to  have  been  used  in  the 
two  centuries  seems  to  have  produced  satisfactory  results. 
This  class  is  made  up  of  the  men  of  rather  better  native 
endowment.  On  the  other  hand,  it  is  probable  that,  for  the 
average  man,  the  more  thorough  and  systematic  the  method, 
the  better  it  was  suited  to  him. 

{d)  As  to  the  Motive  of  the  Theological  Seminaries 

By  the  beginning  of  the  last  twenty  years  of  the  whole 
period  the  conditions  Which  seemed  to  demand  the  theolog- 
ical seminary  had  taken  clear  and  obvious  form ;  as  for  some 
time  previous  they  had  been  in  part  actually  existent.  They 
were  the  failure  of  the  chairs  of  divinity  to  hold  the  students 
for  the  ministry;  the  enlarging  scope  of  the  colleges,  and  the 
increasingly  miscellaneous  character  of  the  students  attend- 
ing them;  the  separation  of  the  country  from  the  British 
Government,  with  the  consequent  self-dependence  of  the 
American  churches,  and  the  adoption  by  the  national  govern- 
ment of  the  principle  of  entire  separation  of  Church  and 
State;  the  extension  of  the  settlements,  with  the  accompany- 
ing spiritual  destitution  and  ecclesiastical  disorganization; 
the  recognized  lowering  of  the  standard  of  theological  prep- 


I90      Training  of  the  Protestant  Ministry 


aration,  and  the  prevalence  of  ignorance  and  error.  These 
appeared  to  demand  a  more  numerous,  and  a  more  thor- 
oughly taught,  ministry.  To  meet  this  demand  the  semi- 
naries were  established.  ^ 

'  The  situation  is  admirably  summarized  by  Professor  Johnson,  op.  cit., 
p.  123:  "When  the  colonies  had  won  their  independence,  and  immigrants 
began  to  pour  into  the  newly  opened  West,  the  urgent  problem  for  all  de- 
nominations was  the  supply  of  ministers  for  this  great  field.  Ministers  could 
not  be  had  in  sufficient  numbers  from  beyond  the  sea,  and  it  was  a  question 
whether  it  was  wise  to  depend  for  work  in  the  new  world  upon  men  brought 
up  and  trained  in  the  old.  Until  1784  there  was  no  theological  seminary  in 
America.  New  Brunswick  Seminary  began  its  honorable  career  in  New  York 
City  in  that  year.  Harvard  and  Yale  had  long  had  each  a  professorship  of 
theology.  College  chairs  were  in  some  cases  practically  chairs  of  theology- 
Here  and  there  a  minister,  with  or  without  appointment,  would  take  young 
men  under  his  personal  care  and  instruction.  But  all  this  was  inadequate  to 
the  supply  even  of  the  East." 

That  the  motive  was  chiefly  to  meet  this  situation  is  confirmed  by  the  same 
writer  {op.  cit.,  p.  123),  and  by  the  American  Church  History  Series,  vol.  xi, 
p.  176)  concerning  the  founding  of  the  same  Seminary  referred  to  by  Professor 
Johnson,  that  is,  Xenia  Seminary,  the  second  Protestant  Seminary  in  the 
country:  "feeling  that  the  supply  of  ministers  from  abroad  was  inadequate  to 
their  wants,  the  Presbytery  took  measures, "  etc. ;  and  by  The  Centennial  Vohime 
of  the  Theological  Seminary  of  the  Reformed  Church,  etc.,  pp.  52,  53,  concerning 
the  founding  of  New  Brunswick  Seminary:  "The  difficulties  connected  with 
the  supply  of  ministers,  and  the  exercise  of  discipline  increasing,  rather  than 
diminishing,  led  all  thinking  minds  and  friends  of  religion  to  see  that  if  the 
Church  was  to  continue  to  live  in  this  country  some  provision  must  be  made 
for  the  education  of  young  men  in  Theology  and  for  their  induction  here." 

The  Minutes  of  the  General  Assembly  of  the  Presbyterian  Church  in  the 
U.  S.  A.,  May,  18 10,  record  that  the  Assembly  was  influenced  by  the  "calls  of 
destitute  frontier  settlements"  to  attempt  to  establish  a  seminary  for  "securing 
.  .  .  more  extensive  and  efficient  theological  instruction."  In  1806,  the 
Presbytery  of  Hanover  expressed  its  concern  over  "the  deplorable  state  of  our 
country  in  regard  to  religious  instruction,  the  very  small  number  of  ministers 
possessing  the  qualifications  required  by  the  Scriptures,  and  the  prevalence  of 
ignorance  and  error, "  and  took  one  of  the  first  steps  that  eventually  led  to  the 
establishment  of  Union  Theological  Seminary  in  Virginia.  See  The  Centennial 
Catalogue  of  the  Trustees,  Officers,  Professors  and  Alumni  of  Union  Theological 
Seminary  in  Virginia,  pp.  6  sq. 

Of  one  of  the  early  Lutheran  eflforts  in  the  direction  of  a  seminary.  Dr. 
Gotwald,  Early  American  Lutheran  Theological  Education,  1745-1845,  p.  8, 
says:  "Dr.  Kunze  ...  on  the  fifteenth  day  of  September,  1797,  ...  re- 


Training  of  the  Protestant  Ministry       191 


solved  to  at  once  found  a  theological  and  missionary  seminar}',  '  as  so  many 
of  the  Lutheran  Churches  were  destitute  of  laborers.'" 

Even  in  the  founding  of  Andover  this  had  its  effect  as  prompting  the  enter- 
prise, as  well  as  did  the  interest  of  Congregational  orthodoxy.  See  Woods,  L., 
History  of  the  Andover  Theological  Seminary,  pp.  17,  18. 


